Fowl Meets Ride
by emrys-ite
Summary: Angeline Fowl adopts a small, black dog the same time Max loses Total. Coincidence? I think not. Okay, I suck at summaries. But this may get interesting. Read to find out. First chapter is kind of short, sorry.  And yeah, I know the title sucks.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! I'm haaschiibrownii. (failure to come up with a better user name has left me with this) **

** Anywhoo, I was bored today and was going around on fanfiction, reading and searching stuff. I realized that there was only one Artemis Fowl Maximum Ride Xover. I realized that this was quite a tragedy. (not the story, it was pretty good, but that there was only one)**

** Now, I'm going to try to write the second one.**

** I'm not sure how this will turn out. I'm not sure if it's going to be funny, or serious, or a total piece of junk. I apologize for whatever happens in here, folks. Heck, I don't even know if this is a oneshot or if I'm gonna continue with it.**

** Basically, under all of that stuff, what I'm saying is bear with me. Whatever happens happens. **

** Alright, I'll be going, but first let me say… actually, there's nothing to say. I just wanted to quote Seussical. (but does that really count as a quote? It's only half of a line. Hmm… Well, whatever.)**

**Disclaimer: I do not Artemis Fowl, or Maximum Ride. Sadly. I have yet to kidnap a character. We'll just have to see how that turns out! *insert evil laugh***

**Note: I'm only going to write in first person when it's Max talking. I'm going to try to honor the author's writing styles. So, if it says Artemis's POV, it means that the chapter or section is focusing on him, but being written in third person. **

**Another note! (yay?): This takes place after The Atlantis Complex and Saving the World. (Why not Fang? Because I really, really, hated the way Fang ended. And I enjoyed Saving the World.)**

Artemis's POV

Artemis Fowl had adopted a dog.

It was not his decision. It had been his mother's. She decided he needed a companion, and ignored all of his protests against the idea.

"I have Butler, Moth- Mom" Artemis had said stiffly, grimacing at his stutter. This was a rare event, for Artemis Fowl almost never stuttered. "He provides all of the companionship that I need."

Angeline Fowl crossed her arms. "A bodyguard does not pass as a social connection for a fifteen year old boy. I know that you and Butler are very close, but I refuse to let you grow up without any interaction with much of anything besides your computer."

Artemis began to protest. "Mother. I have plenty of other friends. You don't need to take any drastic measures."

"Arty, your fairy friends don't count here."

"That's hardly fair."

"I know you don't think this is fair, Arty, and I'm sure that you of all people know this, but life is not fair. You need a companion." As an afterthought she added, "One that doesn't bring you into such situations."

Artemis sighed, knowing that she was referring to the previous events involving his "fairy friends". He knew that he was defeated. Angeline Fowl had been trying to move him into what she deemed to be a "suitable" life for a fifteen year old boy, as soon as he had returned from his treatment at the Argon Clinic.

What his mother didn't understand was that he didn't need people in general. It was true that he needed _certain_ people, but another fifteen year old boy wouldn't fit into that elite category. Plus, it was hardly plausible that Angeline would find a boy suitable to Artemis's needs. Artemis retreated to his study, confident that this would be nothing to worry about.

He was wrong.

The next day as he walked, no, glided, down the stairs gloatingly he found a (from his point of view) quite nasty surprise. In the lobby of the mansion, there was his mother, attempting to cuddle a sultry, stiff, dog.

"Wha-what is that?" Artemis stuttered, mortified both at the appearance of the animal and the fact that he had actually _stuttered_.

"It's your new dog!" Angeline beamed at him, her happiness metaphorically blinding Artemis.

Artemis rubbed his temples. "Mother," he began. Angeline glared at him. "Fine, mom. I don't have time to take care of a dog. There are many other things far more important than that poor creature. Which, by the way, I think you're strangling it."

Angeline glanced down at the dog, who appeared to be asphyxiating. She set it down gently, and it growled at her, baring its teeth. "Look, Arty. You need to be more normal. I've been trying to get you into a better lifestyle ever since that horrible Atlantis business."

"Are you referring to the complex or the city?"

"Both. Arty, please, humor me. For one week. Then, we can take the dog back to the pound. Think of it as one of your, eh… projects."

Artemis sighed, realizing that his mother wouldn't let the matter drop. "So be it. But honestly, Mom, where am I going to find the time to care for a dog?"

Angeline smiled as she started up the stairs. "I'm sure you can find some somewhere, since you have such a gift at bending it. Oh, and one more thing."

Artemis barely managed not to flinch.

"I want you to wear your jeans and t-shirt at least twice this week."

"D'Arvit." Artemis muttered under his breath.

"I heard that!"

Artemis rolled his eyes. His mother was the mother of perhaps one of the world's most unusual people, but she still had the mannerisms of a normal mother ordering her teenager around. And, as any resident of Fowl Manor could tell you, she was quite adept at it.

**Sorry that was so short. Gah, barely nine hundred words. But it seemed like a good place to end the chapter, so I just went with it. But, the next one should be up pretty soon. We're into play week, so rehearsals are crazy. But since today's a Saturday, I have some time. **

**Okay, sorry for rambling. I'll leave now.**

**But, wait! Please, please, please, if you're logged in (or even if you're not) REVIEW! I love to read reviews and really appreciate constructive criticism. And I'll always try to PM you or respond in the next chapter. Thanks!**

**R&R?**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm back! With a new chapter as well. Of course, I probably wouldn't be posting this if I didn't have a new chapter.**

**I just wanted to say thanks for all the reviews, alerts, and favorites! It means a lot.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Artemis Fowl or Maximum Ride. All rights go Eoin Colfer and Jimmy P. **

Max's POV 

I'm screwed. Royally. Epically.

One of the worst, no, the worst, possible things besides us being captured or, hey, dying has happened. I'm dead serious. And now, I'm stuck in this overseas country until I magically solve the problem.

We lost Total.

I know what you're thinking: We lost a dog? That's all? That's not too terrible. But trust me, it's about the one thing that is going to get me stuck in a rut so deep I won't be able to even fly out. The younger kids (and okay, the older kids too) have gotten attached to him in a way that they will personally drag me from the air back on the oh-so-solid ground.

So now, I'm stuck overseas in Ireland. The Dublin area, to be exact. Maybe I should trust in local legends and find some leprechauns to help me find this darn dog.

But since I'm sane, probably not. Unless, of course, these leprechauns have a paranoid someone or other with millions of satellites junking up the atmosphere that can zoom in to the molecular level.

Likely, huh?

I stood several feet away from the rest of the flock, pacing and worrying my butt off. I have places to go, people to see. I can't be stuck in Ireland for the rest of my life. I rubbed my temples. How did we even end up here?

Oh, right.

A couple weeks ago, we were lounging at my mom's house, taking a brief respite from our constant hit-and-fly lifestyle. I had become addicted to the soap operas that played on daytime television after injuring a wing in a painful introduction with a nice fir tree. Nice.

I'm over that addiction.

So, I was wrapped up in a blanket in the den, helplessly entranced in a piece of junk love story. I didn't even notice Iggy approaching me until he cleared his throat.

"Max?"

"Mmm?" I didn't even look up from the TV.

"Could we, er, go to Ireland?" he asked a little nervously.

"I don't see why not," I mumbled, immersed in the soap. He began to walk away, but I realized what he had actually said. "Wait a second." He stopped in his tracks. "Ireland? Why?"

"I want to try and trace my heritage."

I shot him a look, then realized it was lost on him. "Ig, just because you have red hair doesn't mean you're Irish."

He turned around. "Actually, I know for a fact that I am. My mom's great-grandparents immigrated to America a while back. While we were in D.C., my mom kept trying to sign me up for traditional dancing." He shuddered. "I actually went to a lesson once, and got a bruised shoulder for my trouble."

I stared at him. "You were… dancing?" I stifled a laugh at an image of Iggy rapidly moving his feet while his arms and top half were stoically straight.

An irritated look came across his face. "Shut up. Can we just go, please?"

I waved him away, ready to get back to the soap. "Ireland, whatever."

He pumped his fist in the air and ran out of the room. From my position, I heard him yell, "Guys! We get to go!"

"Yes!" I heard Angel scream.

"Woohoo!" Yelled Gazzy.

"I can't wait! Their Quidditch team is really good!" That was Nudge.

I sat up and yelled a comment of my own. "Nudge! Quidditch is not real! Harry Potter is not real! This is the last time I'm saying it."

"I'm not giving up!"

I sighed, already knowing that it was going to be a long trip. And hey, look who was right?

I snapped out of my flashback as Fang glided up to me. "Any ideas?"

"What do you think?" I said irritably. "No."

He shrugged. "I was just asking." We stood in silence for a moment, then he made eye contact. "Why don't we check he pound?"

I slapped my forehead. _Idiot!_ Of course the pound would be the first place to check. "Thanks," I said to Fang, then stood up.

I clapped my hands. "Okay, guys! New plan. We're going to head out to the pound, check it out and see if we can find any information on Total."

Angel looked up with sad blue eyes. "Do you think it'll work?"

I gave her an apologetic. "I don't know, sweetie. All we can do is try."

We took off into the sky, back to the main part of Dublin. Navigating the streets and periodically asking for directions, we eventually came to the small animal shelter. I opened the door apprehensively, on edge and ready for anything. A few feet from the entrance, a small mousy woman was tapping away at a computer looking busy. I snuck a glance at the computer screen.

She was playing solitaire.

Not feeling the least bit remorseful about interrupting her game, I rang the small bell on the desk. She jumped in her seat, the glanced irritably at me. "Can I help you?"

I leaned against the desk, propping my elbows up on the polished surface. "Well, we lost our dog a couple days ago. Small, black, and fuzzy. Seen him?"

She exited her game and pulled up a document. "We've had several dogs recovered in the past week. I can check if any matches your description."

I tapped my fingers noisily, letting my long nails click annoyingly on the surface. The woman tensed, and I could tell that I was getting on her.

I generally do that.

She glanced at me, and I silenced my fingers. We've had one 'small, black, and fuzzy' dog recovered in the past week. Unfortunately, he was adopted."

I stared at her. "He was WHAT?"

"Adopted. As it shows here, he had no forms of identification. He wasn't wearing a collar, and a chip didn't show when we scanned for one."

"That idiot, he took the collar off again." I muttered under my breath.

"Excuse me?"

I snapped back. "Oh, nothing. Could you tell me who adopted him?"

"The name was Angeline Fowl."I

"Is there an address to go with that name?" I wheedled.

"I'm sorry, miss, but I can't give out that information."

_Crap_, I thought. Well, at least we had a name to build off of. And Fowl sounded slightly familiar…

_**It's always good to look on the positive side, Max.**_

_ Look at that_. I directed a thought at the Voice. You're back. _Now get out of my head._

Thankfully, it didn't say anything else.

Had I finally learned to control it?

_**You're not able to control me, Max, because I am not part of your own conscious. I am of a separate one.**_

No.

I exhaled again, then looked back at the secretary. "Thanks anyway." With that, I turned on my heel and walked out the door into the crisp Dublin air. I turned to face my flock, who all looked pretty bummed out.

Except for Fang, of course. You know, because he has that special "condition" where he is unable to emote.

"Okay, new plan. We find out who Angeline Fowl is, and then we find her." I said matter-of-factly to the flock.

"You always make it seem so easy when you say it," said Iggy.

"Well, yeah," I replied. "But nothing's ever been too hard, has it?"

I received a handful of glares from everyone, even Fang. "Okay, it has. But I know that I've heard the name Fowl somewhere before."

"Yeah," Nudge agreed. She snapped her fingers. "Wasn't it in a newspaper a year or two ago?"

I glanced at Fang and received a nod. "I think their son went missing." He said unemotionally.

I racked my brains, trying to verify it with my own memories. Finally, I remembered. "His name was Artemis, or something."

"Isn't that a girl's name?" Gazzy piped in.

"Yeah, the Greek goddess of the moon." Answered Angel.

_**Max, you're on the right track**__, _said the Voice.

_I'm not stupid, _I replied. _I've gotten this far, haven't I?_

_**Yes, but now you have to advance with the information that you have.**_

__"Guys, let's hit the library!"

**Bleh, not the best. It's hard for me to write as Max. Oh well, I'm not going to get it any better by my deadline.**

**I set deadlines for myself. So far, it's working. If I hadn't set this, it probably wouldn't have been up for… well, for a while.**

**Oh, and sorry this took so long to post. I've been really busy lately, and I told, like, five of my friends that I would write them into any story they wanted. Also, I entered a TMM contest/challenge/thingy and I've been busy trying to write that. Plus, there's my Code Geass story…**

**Anywhoo, I'll stop wasting your time. Thanks for reading this, I hope you liked it! (even though I didn't :P)**

**R&R?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Bonjour! Il fait froid, n'est pas? Mains froid, couer chaud? Je ne sais pas. Mon couer est froid aussi. Il fait trés, trés froid.**

**Well, I can tell my French teacher that I practice my French outside of school now. That should appease her. Any speakers out there? I apologize. I probably messed a lot of stuff in there. Well, oh well. (hah, I said well twice) It was fun to write, just like this chapter.**

**Well, I suppose I should get on with it. (and that would be the third well… or the fifth if you count the ones in my parentheses. Heh heh.)**

**Disclaimer: …You know, we should all know this by now… Maybe I should kidnap Artemis or Fang and get one of them to do it for me. **

Artemis Fowl was busily tapping away at his MacBook, happily enjoying the joys of everyday writing. He had become a published romance novelist several years back, and had become addicted to the fine art of tragic love. Seeing as it was quite uncharacteristic for a man (or rather, boy) of his status and demeanor, he had kept the hobby not only hidden from his family but from the rest of the world with a clever pen name. He doubted that even Foaly knew of his secret hobby.

[Somewhere beneath the surface of the Earth, the centaur cackled madly as he read a particularly mushy paragraph in the Irish youth's newest novel, _Life Without Love is Like Death Without Tragedy_. The centaur wondered how much he enjoyed his novels. They provided small amusement in his everyday monotonous life.]

And then Artemis heard a small yelp.

He didn't even have to look, he knew what it was. He was sick of the thing: It required daily feeding, and even then it barely ate, and he was forced to walk it around the grounds at least twice a day to use the restroom. He couldn't simply let the dog outside, no, because in his mother's words, "A dog cannot be unsupervised without a fence to corral it. Since we don't have a fence (it would mar the beauty of our panoramic view), you must take the dog outside yourself on a leash."

His mother had been watching over him constantly, making sure that the dog was receiving proper care and that he wasn't starving it to death just to be rid of the thing. It was always, "Feed the dog, Arty," or, "Take the dog outside, Arty," or "Pick up after your pet, Arty." Arty, Arty, Arty. Arty this, Arty that. He didn't mind his mother's pet name, but with every request attached to it, it was beginning to get on his nerves. He didn't deserve this, did he? He hadn't done anything (too) terrible lately, so it couldn't have been karma. Not that he believed it such things, but after once believing in "number gods", he wasn't going to disregard anything yet.

The teen shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Along with the dog, he was being forced into wearing typical civilian clothing, a far cry from his usual garb. Artemis Fowl was in jeans. _Jeans._ He wouldn't disregard that they weren't comfortable, but they just felt so, so… so unprofessional. His main horror over the past few days was that a business partner would come calling to the manor, and he would answer the door in jeans. And a tee-shirt to boot.

But he supposed that he deserved it. He hadn't informed anyone, fairy or otherwise, about his growing mental illness, instead letting it progress far enough to where it had him praying to gods that didn't exist and throwing himself into random fits of hallucination. That day had to have been the one of the most embarrassing of his life, even outranking the 99% he had received on a 7th grade math test. A mere, measly 99%. He had been horrified, but after finding himself practically worshipping imaginary deities, he had consoled himself with the fact that this, in fact, was much worse than a 99% score.

As he let these thoughts progress through his highly developed mind, he threw a sideways glance at the animal. It was beginning to scare him, Artemis Fowl, by wearing a simple blank glare every time it looked at him. No emotion. No panting tongue. No wagging tail. Nothing. Just a blank stare as if the thing was somehow contemplating the boy. He assumed that normal dogs had the above habits and demeanor, but this one… it was simply different from those he had read up on. _Man's best friend_, the teen snorted inside his mind. _A far cry from it._

He waved a hand at the animal. "Go away, dog. Shoo." He turned back to his document, quickly returning his pale hands back to the keyboard.

"Go away, dog. Shoo." A quiet voice echoed throughout the spacious bedroom. Immediately, Artemis stood up, knocking his chair over in the process. Taking a deep breath, he straightened out the nonexistent wrinkles in his tee-shirt. "Who's there? Reveal yourself. If you are LEP, you have no business here." All he was thinking about was the document open on his desktop in full view of whatever fairy may be there. Foaly could not know. At all costs, the centaur could never discover his hobby.

A small snort came from the floor. Artemis's gaze immediately flew down, expecting to see Holly or another officer shimmering into view. Instead, he saw the dog trotting out of his bedroom with a different demeanor and posture than which it had entered with. If he had seen its face, Artemis would have sworn that it was smiling.

With a puzzled expression on his face, Artemis pulled up his chair and sat back down, quickly closing the document and bringing up his current project, completely rewriting the Wikipedia article on the Fowl family. Whatever it was, it wasn't going to reveal itself. _Or perhaps, _the boy thought, _I may be hearing things again. _He shook his head, wondering if this was true. A erratic thought crossed his mind. What if the dog had been talking? He quickly disregarded it. No, impossible. The engineering for that and the level of genetics education would have to have been monumentous. Even Artemis himself didn't even completely understand the concept that would have been needed to have been used to create such a creature.

Because, dog's just couldn't talk.

Outside in the hallway, Total strutted with a new air about him. "Idiot," the small dog voiced aloud. "He should be fun."

**Yes, it's finally done! I am so sorry for the long wait. I (finally) just got time to work on this, and managed to get it all out in one go. I've discovered that I really enjoy writing as Artemis (even though it's not in first person) because his way of speech and the way that Eoin Colfer writes is just really fun to try and replicate. I'm having a lot of fun writing this story, so I hope that you like it! If I have time this weekend, I will begin writing (and possibly post, but I doubt it) the next chapter with Max and the Flock. I'm so glad that you guys all like this story, and thanks for all of the reviews! They mean a lot and motivate me to keep writing. Oh, and for you anonymous reviewer who asked me if this fic was canceled, THANK YOU! You and Master of the Blood Wolves inspired me to get this chapter up and going. I salute you both.**

**Peace, love, and shrimp muffins.**

**R&R?**


	4. Chapter 4

"You're kidding me."

Holly bit her lip, trying not to crack up. The image on Foaly's precious plasma screen was just altogether just too rich. "Artemis Fowl, our Artemis Fowl-"

"-Is there any other Artemis Fowl?"

She ignored Foaly's interruption. "-Adopted a dog?"

At the mere auditory mention of the subject, the centaur burst out laughing. "First jeans, then- Oh gosh, this is just too rich. I never thought I would love Angeline more."

Holly shot him a sideways glance. "That's a bit odd."

Foaly quieted down. "I know, but I can't help that it's true. For some reason," he began, propping his head up on his elbows and staring at the screen, "I just love to watch that Mud Boy squirm."

Holly sat down in a chair next to him that he kept around for visitors (mainly her) and watched the live feed. "Sadly, I agree with you."

They both watched as the dog pulled Artemis around on a leash around the grounds. The youth stumbled around in his jeans, not accustomed to the baggy material or the erratic paths he was taking. "I swear," she began. "That dog is doing all of this just to spite him."

"It does seem that way, doesn't it."

"I think I'm enjoying it."

"I think I am too."

"We're bad people, aren't we?"

"Not unduly so. We're just having a little fun."

"That seems about right."

Max's POV

For what may have been only the second time in my life, I had been rendered speechless.

Not for a while, maybe a fraction of a second. Does that even count as being speechless at all? Well, I think it does in my book. For me, anyway.

I cleared my throat, trying to sound confident. "Okay guys, we've seen worse than this. It's not so bad, is it?"

Fang turned. "This place is a freaking _fortress._"

I sighed. "Thanks for the insight, Fang. But so was the castle in Lendeheim, right?"

Nudge nodded her head. "Yeah, that's right. I don't think this place is that bad. It looks really pretty. You could even play Quidditch in the orchard!"

I gritted my teeth. "Nudge, enough with the Harry Potter references."

She blew me off. "Whatever."

I forced myself back to the conversation. "Anyways, we'll be able to get in, no problem. We just fly up and over the gate and into the courtyard. Then we peek around a bit, see if we can sniff out Total."

"But Max, what if they have snipers?" Gazzy whined.

I clenched my fists. "Does everything have to be a freaking action movie? We're going to be fine."

Angel grabbed my hand, her small palm easily fitting into my own. "I believe you, Max."

I beamed down at her. _So adorable._ "Thanks, sweetie." I stood up ramrod straight, ready to pump up my flock.

"We're going in. Who's with me?"

Artemis's POV

Artemis Fowl was staring at the screen, trying to come up with a nice sentence to conclude the paragraph he was almost finished with. _Therefore, the…_ no. _Henceforth, the Fowl's have… _no. _In conclusion, the Fowl's empire has taken a change for the better; now participating in more legit, legal projects and developing new world changing concepts in their labs. _He grinned. More like in his media room.

He sat back in his chair and hit save. Steepling his fingers, he found himself quite satisfied with the article. It had been a refreshing project; updating the Fowl family's wikipedia page, much different from the other activities he often indulged himself in.

He found himself missing Holly, though. He should call her soon, catch up. He'd have to foot the bill of course, but with him money was no object. He fingered the communications ring, finally deciding to slip it onto his finger. He opened his mouth, ready to speak…

"Artemis!"

He put his hand sound, slightly disappointed. "Yes, Butler?"

The man addressed his young charge. "We've got company."

Artemis sat up, all business. "Fairy?"

"No, something new."

"Video feed. Now."

Butler slid the keyboard across the lacquered desk and quickly typed in a few commands. Within three seconds, a live video feed of the grounds popped up onscreen. Artemis scrutinized the picture, comprehending what was being shown.

…Children?

A smirk slowly spread across his face. Oh, this was going to be fun. For these children to even be able to access the grounds was a remarkable feat in itself. Or maybe there was something different about them. Something _special_.

"Butler, switch to thermal," he commanded.

The man mountain prodded in a new command on the keys, and suddenly the screen was a mix of reds, blues, oranges, yellows, and greens. On the back of each child, two large red spots could be found amidst the reddish-oranges of the back and yellows of the hair.

"Mmm," he practically purred. "This should be interesting." He turned to his bodyguard. "Butler, could you gather them up? I'd like to speak to them. Apprehend them peacefully… if possible."

His employee nodded. "At once." With that, he disappeared out of the room, no doubt to head straight out to the grounds.

Artemis leaned back in his chair and uncharacteristically propped his feet up on the desk. "I think I'm going to like this."

**Note: This A/N may turn out to be kind of long… sorry. You need not to read this next paragraph if you don't want to.**

**Okay, two things. Well, more like two apologies. Firstly, I apologize for not updating this in (how long has it been?) like a month or something. I've been kind of busy with stuff (our school musical is in a week and rehearsals are CRAZY) and school (crackin' down on my American History, guys) and home stuff, like piano and drums. Not to mention that our first forensics tournament is in a month or so and I just finished writing my essay (which I am nowhere near ready to present). Still though, I've been meaning to just sit down and write it for quite a while, and I finally got around to it. If you've been reading this from the beginning and have stuck with it in all of it's three (well, now four) chapters, I salute you. I never thought that it would be this well received. The reviews/chapter ratio is higher than on any of my other stories, so thank you! Those reviews and stuff are what push me to update and make me feel guilty every time I look at them again and am not writing… yeah. But they really push me, thank you! I'd also like to thank Master of the Blood Wolves again for being the one to get me off of my butt to write this (even though you sent your PM a while ago… sorry for not responding…) but THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Hopefully I won't need to depend on you next time to motivate me to write the next chapter.**

**Okay, the second thing I want to apologize for is that this chapter is kind of short. Without this A/N, it's only like 900 words, which is kind of short for me. But I felt like that was a good place to end it, and it just felt right… so, yeah. I'm going to start on the next chapter right now though! Hopefully it'll be up this weekend! No promises though…**

**Oh, and if anyone knows anything about thermal vision, if you can correct me on anything I screwed up here I would really appreciate it. I know absolutely nothing o.0**

**Finally, I want to apologize (okay, so there are three) if any of the characters seem OOC or anything. But I do think that Holly and Foaly (well, Foaly at least) would be laughing like that at Artemis. It makes me laugh to write this.**

**Thanks for reading, I apologize for the lengthlyness of the A/N (we're at four now). I always hate it when you're just like, "Wow, a super-long chapter!" and then the A/N takes up like half of the space and it's just like, **_**failure. **_**But I had a lot of things I wanted to say, so I think it was justified.**

**Au revoir, my dear readers!**

**R&R?**

**P.S. I didn't really want to proofread this… so there may be errors and stuff.**

**P.P.S. ANOTHER THANK YOU! I forgot earlier to thank Absolutely Unusual for prompting me to write a little bit with Holly. Thanks!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Oh my gods.**

**It's been over two months since I updated this.**

**I apologize. Sorry, gomen, sorry, sorry, sorry. I feel really bad. I've kind of disappeared from fanfiction for a while, and I decided that I needed to freaking update. I feel really bad too, since you guys gave me like nine reviews within the first **_**day**_** since I updated (YOU ALL ROCK!) and I hadn't responded to any of them or acknowledged any of them. But thank you so much, they finally inspired me to keep writing. Key word being "finally"…**

**Anyways, I'll try to update more regularly and more quickly now. How does once every two weeks sound? If I don't keep to that, feel free to e-mail me (link on my profile) or PM me or leave a review or something. Feel free to e-slap me as well if you wish. Also, I'm going to try my best to reply to EVERY review. We'll have to see what happens, but I'll try my best!**

**Okay, now I'll start :)**

Max's POV

"I think I'm going to die if we walk around this house one more time."

I gritted my teeth as Iggy loudly voiced yet another obnoxious comment to add to my growing list of irritations. Sadly though, I agreed with him; I was going to scream if we didn't find a way in within the next fifteen minutes. Or, rather, a _safe _way to get in. We had passed a delivery entrance, and, _hey, _the front door, but that just seemed so expected, so obvious, that I didn't want to even try and use them. Heck, who knows, maybe I was too stubborn not to enter in some "uncool" fashion. Well, who knows. All I know was that I couldn't get into this freaking mansion.

I felt Fang brush up against me. "You sure we can't just knock?"

I pushed him away. "Not really our style, is it? Plus, if these guys kidnapped Total, they'll be expecting us."

His expression was a mix between a grimace and a sly grin. "Max, they didn't 'kidnap' him. They adopted him from a shelter."

I bit my lip. "Same difference."

We rounded another corner into the same garden we had passed at least four times through already. My patience was wearing thin though, and if I weaved around another perfectly trimmed topiary I might faint. So, I shrugged out my jacket, thrust out my wings, and answered my flock's puzzled expressions with a shrug. "We might be able to get a better view from an aerial standpoint."

I saw the younger kid's faces break into large grins. I'm sure that they were just as sick of walking around as I was. It took us about fifteen minutes to get around the house, and we had made about four trips. Walking was getting tired, and my wings were becoming restless. Not only my wings, but my mind as well. With a place as big as this, there had to be some security, something that we were missing. It was freaking me out, quite honestly. Some part of my brain (not the Voice) said that flying would help. Well, who was I to deny myself that pleasure? It'd help to get an aerial view as well.

With a running leap of faith, I took off from the lush ground and watched my flock follow me up. Sweet, clear air filled my nostrils and I sighed in relief. It felt good to be off of the ground.

Now, for the more important purpose that I had come up. I swooped low, doing a quick aerial once-over on the entire grounds. I didn't see anything out of order, no little black dots running around the expansive lawn. It looked pretty much exactly the same as it did from on the ground, just… flatter. I sighed and ran a hand through my mussy hair. Looks like I had come up with nothing again.

I began to descend. I hated to admit that Fang might have been right, but we might just have to knock. I knew that I had been being stubborn, but I didn't realize that I was until someone deliberately pointed it out. I guess I was just being paranoid. There was probably a nice family that lived in this _monstrous _castle/fortress/mansion, and they probably would be glad to give Total back to his owners. There wasn't anything to really be worried about.

That's when the dart hit me in the leg.

I felt the pinch of it entering my skin. _Crap, _I thought. "Fang!" I yelled out, just loud enough to get his attention. Already I was feeling a little dizzy, a little drowsy. The sedative had already been injected, and there was nothing I could do to reverse it. I gritted my teeth and continued to descend as quickly as I could, my movements wobbly and uneven. All I could do was hope to get to the ground before I was knocked out so I didn't break anything. My flock would have to fight whoever had shot me.

It must've been a small dose since it had been almost ten seconds since injection. Still though, I was losing my focus and was feeling my consciousness slip away. _Please, just let me make it to the ground, _I prayed silently.

I felt the tips of my sneakers touch earth before I blacked out completely.

Butler's POV

At first, the large manservant hadn't been quite sure how to apprehend six children.

Mafia agents? No problem. Kidnapping thugs? Wouldn't even break a sweat. Fairy Recon Squad? He could blow through them in less than three minutes. Children? There, he wasn't so sure.

He was a little apprehensive to approach them outright; by the way Artemis had reacted, the must not have normal. Maybe they could use magic? Doubtful. As far as Butler knew, there wasn't any way that Artemis could detect that from a simple thermal scan. He was a little concerned about the heat patches on the back, however. It worried him, just in the slightest. He liked to know what he was up against.

Butler adjusted his positioning underneath the topiary and observed as the group passed within five meters of his location for the second time. He supposed he could take up the pretense of an actual butler and offer them assistance, but that would seem a little dubious. Near a house like this, they would expect to be sternly apprehended if caught. Not offered to come inside. They didn't seem to lack intelligence; they had made it onto the grounds, after all.

He was briefly debating whether to use his tranquilizer gun and just get it over with when he saw the lead female shrug off her jacket. She was the one who reminded him a little bit of his young charge, with the seemingly natural leadership and the way she was controlling the situation. She seemed like she had all "it", per se, just like Artemis.

He briefly raised his tranquilizer gun at the movement, but fumbled for it as it slipped out his hands when she rolled her shoulder blades back. A pair of wings slid out from underneath her tank top, a few feathers falling onto the group. She shook them out briefly, took a look at her group and said something indiscernible to her group, and began running at a faster than quick pace. With large leap of faith, she took off in the air, briefly hovering before soaring up over the Manor.

He fumbled for his gun as the rest of the group did the same, even the petite little girl. Peeking the barrel through the leaves of the topiary, he took aim for the eldest female's leg. There was no choice but to tranq' them now, he couldn't risk letting them get away. Not after this.

He cocked the gun, checked his aim, and fired, feeling a small pang of guilt when the tranquilizer bullet hit her in the leg. She took a moment, then yelled something up to the group. She began descending at a rapid rate, and he worried that she might have lost consciousness already, but saw a bit of control in her unsteady movements. She touched the ground shakily with the tips of her sneakers, then crumpled to the ground.

Butler crawled out from under the topiary, already seeing the rest of the group rapidly descending towards their fallen member. He ran to a better vantage point, ready to sedate the rest of the children. He wasn't going to like it, but it was something he had to do. The bullets were loaded with small doses, anyways. It would only knock them out for about ten minutes. As the first of them touched down, a lanky boy with long, shaggy black hair, he took aim and hit his leg.

The boy's hand instinctively flew to the point and pulled the dart out. Not that it would do anything, of course. The dart would have already injected. He tried to walk several steps, then fell to the ground, a grimace upon his face.

A young African-American girl no older than thirteen landed and skidded across the even ground. "Fang!" she cried, rushing over to the black haired boy.

_Fang? _The manservant thought dubiously. _Is that his name? _He pushed the thought away and with a grimace, pulled the trigger a third time and winced as the dart inserted itself in the African-American girl's leg.

The last three children touched town, the two younger ones quickly turning towards him, realizing that there was nothing they could do for their fallen comrades but fight him. The older, taller one automatically tensed up once he hit the ground, but did nothing in the way of turning in his direction.

"Ig, three-o-clock!" One of the two younger children standing, a small blond boy, called out. 'Ig' spun around to face Butler, and with a low growl, charged him.

Butler shot him.

He winced for the umpteenth time as the teenager fell to the ground with the others with a muttered "Damn."

_Profanity? _Butler thought. He supposed that he hadn't really expected anything of the sort of children, but that probably was because Artemis rarely used any form of swear word. He understood the use though, as he would've probably muttered something a little stronger had he been in the boy's place.

His thoughts took up less than a second, and he was well prepared when the blond boy trying to jump on his back. Vaguely he wondered how the child had managed to even make it six feet into the air, but the thought only crossed his mind as he scooped the child up. For a moment, he was puzzled as what to do with the boy in his massive arms. Wide blue eyes stared up at him, and his brow furrowed. Suddenly the boy lunged, sinking his teeth into Butler's arm.

Butler's eyes widened, and he shook the boy off onto the ground. He glanced at his arm, slightly shocked when he saw that the child had managed to draw blood. It didn't bother him at all, he had much worse in his days, but it still was a bit of a surprise.

He saw the boy run back to the younger girl who was crouched beside Butler's first target. "Angel!" he screamed. "What're you doing?"

He saw her glance up, then nod. She started right at Butler, bright blue eyes boring into his own. He shifted uncomfortably, then cocked his gun right at her petite leg. The worst part was that she didn't even flinch, just continued fueling her gaze, which reminded him slightly of the _mesmer_. He avoided looking into her eyes, instead cocking his gun.

Then suddenly it felt like the _mesmer_.

He felt himself wanting to lower his gun, and to just sit down on the ground. _No, _he thought fiercely, trying to fight it, and he saw her eyes widen. Was she doing this? Impossible. She wasn't a fairy; was too tall and he couldn't see any pointed ears in sight. Still thought, he _felt _it, and he knew that if it was her he had to stop. With a heave of effort, he pulled the trigger and watched as the dart hit her leg.

The feeling disappeared.

Butler was panting, realizing that the mental effort had taken some physical as well. It seemed that resisting this strange new power affected one in a similar way that resisting the _mesmer _did. He didn't know what it was, and he didn't like it or how it could possibly affect him or his principle.

Without wasting time, he shot the young boy with his last bullet just in case he had any tricks up his sleeve like the girl, Angel, he recalled, had possessed. With a grimace spreading across his face, the boy crumpled to the ground.

Butler surveyed the damage. All six children were lying down on the ground, and the sight made him sick. They were just children, and he was disappointed with himself that the entire situation had turned out this way. If only he had thought of a way to apprehend them before he had seen their wings. Madame Ko would have been severely disappointed in him and his actions.

He snapped out of his thoughts and began the tedious and uncomfortable task of carrying the children inside starting with the lanky, dark haired boy. One by one, he carried each of them inside the manor and down to the only place he could think of that was secure. Each one was carried down to the lowest level of Fowl Manor and into the concrete cell (as it could only be called) where Holly Short had once been kept captive.

He took great care with the female that he had shot first, noticing that one of her wings (it still was unfathomable that these children had _wings_, but he had seen them fly and they were most definitely attached to each of their backs) was bent at an unnatural angle, and he worried that it might have been broken when she had crumpled to the ground. A pang of guilt echoed throughout his chest. He felt terrible, and made a mental note that he would not be doing anything of this sort for Artemis again, unless it directly threatened his charge's health if he didn't. Still though, the older Butler wasn't cut out for this anymore, mentally.

He made his way back up to Artemis's study knowing that the Irish youth wouldn't be any more pleased with his actions than he was. He might have been okay with it several long years ago (after all, he had kidnapped Holly), but now the manservant knew that Artemis would experience just as much guilt as he himself did.

Which, he reminded himself as he climbed the stairs up to Artemis's study, Dr. Argon had instructed him to help Artemis keep away from. Guilt was what had brought on the Complex in the first place, and too much guilt on the boy's conscience could bring it back.

When Butler reached the door to his charge's study, he grasped the doorknob firmly and twisted it to the right. Opening the door, he saw Artemis immersed in the screen in front of him, which, after a quick peek, revealed the camera feed connecting to the cell down stairs. He saw that the first female had woken up and still looked a little disoriented and grimacing in pain as she glanced at her wing. After a moment, she sat up fully and leaned against the wall, scanning every inch of the cell, eventually sighing, seemingly realizing that there was no way out. She stayed where she was though, an irate look coming across her face with every second that passed.

Slowly, the other's began waking up, rubbing their heads and almost immediately turning to the first female for guidance. She exchanged several words with each of them, many following along the lines of "I don't know" or "We'll be fine" or even "This is nothing. We'll be out of here in an hour."

"Her confidence is impressive," he heard Artemis mutter. The teen pushed back his chair and stood up, reaching up to straighten his collar until he realized that he was wearing the overly casual t-shirt his mother had forced him into. With a grimace, he consented to setting the scoop neck lining of the shirt perfectly straight and flattening the wrinkles out of his jeans. Once he had deemed himself as having reached the closest thing he could come to impeccable in what he was wearing (which wasn't very close) he began taking long strides towards the door.

"Butler, let's go."

**I wasn't quite sure how to end that. It think, overall, that this chapter turned out okay, but I think that some of the characters may have been a little OOC, Max especially at the end. Leave in a review if you think so, and leave any critiques as well! Thanks for reading this, and sticking with it if you've been waiting two months for an update.**

**Oh, and I'm going to put what I'm listening to at the bottom of each chapter now.**

**Playlist:**

**World is Mine- Hatsune Miku**

**Magnet- Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka**

**Migikata no Chou- Kagamine Len and Kagamine Rin**

**The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku- Hatsune Miku**

**Yeah, I'm kind of on a Vocaloid kick… But it's so amazing :3 Check it out if you've got the time, some of the songs are really good.**

**Peace out!**

**R&R?**


	6. Chapter 6

…

…

…

**I'M SORRY! D:**

**I have failed you all.**

**I promise I will make the deadline next time. **

Max's POV

I.

Am.

Ticked.

Off.

First off, how the _heck_ did I manage to get taken down from the air? Okay, well, _yes, _someone did shoot me, but the question I'm asking is how I managed to get shot in the first place. I was in a dive. No one should have been able to hit me at that kind of speed. Still though, saying that they shouldn't have been able doesn't mean that they didn't, and that's the hard truth that I had to accept.

I sat up groggily. For once, I wasn't hooked up to an IV, or strapped to a hospital bed, or locked up in a dog crate. However, this situation could only be counted as a small improvement, as in that now I was trapped in a concrete cell. At least this time, my flock and I weren't separated. I was disappointed to learn that they had been tranq'd as well. Whoever had taken us down shouldn't have been much of a match for five angry bird kids.

But apparently they were. So.

A sharp pain stabbed through my right wing, and I looked back to see it bent at an angle that it probably shouldn't have been. I winced as it throbbed. It must've gotten hit when I fell on the ground with it still extended. I looked around to assess the rest of my flock. None of them looked like they had any injuries like I did, but Iggy had a couple scratches on his face and Nudge looked like she had opened up the scab on her knee. Everyone's wings were still extended. And someone had managed to carry us in here like that?

Who the _heck_ were we dealing with?

I heard a groan from several feet away and turned to see Fang coming to. He sat up, rubbing his head. His eyes flitted around the room, and he sighed. With his gaze directed at me, his eyes seemed to say, _"What to do?" _I shrugged in agreement. But I couldn't help shooting an all-knowing glance back at him just to show that there had been a sort of danger just as there always was (was I the only one who had a freaking clue?).

One by one, the rest of the flock woke up groggily. After replying the best that I could to severa questions, I finally asked what had happened.

Angel bit her lip. "Well, after you fell, we came down and Fang got shot. Then Nudge did, I think, and we saw who it was."

Gazzy nodded. "It was this big bald guy, like a mountain. I only went up to his waist."

I frowned. "How do you know that?"

He smiled sheepishly. "I bit his arm."

I nodded proudly. "Nice. So, you guys got a little action?"

Angel shook her head. "Only Gazzy, really." She frowned. "I tried to get in his head, but it was like he had felt me before. He resisted."

I bit my lip. "That's really weird. I know we've never met anyone like you've described him as; I would've remembered. And as far as I know, there's no one like you out there, Angel, but the School might've made a new batch of recombinants…" I trailed off.

I got a couple nods in reply. Angel spoke up again. "I got a glimpse at his mind though before he pushed me out. He felt really bad about shooting us."

_That didn't stop him from doing it, _I thought grimly. She bowed We lapsed into silence.

Or, at least, I'd like to say that.

Nudge and Angel began playing some hand clap game, and Iggy and Gazzy were complaining about how they didn't have any explosives on them anymore (which made me wonder if they had somehow smuggled them with them across the Atlantic, or if they had built them when we had arrived here, which honestly scared me more).

"I can't believe that guy found them on me!" Gazzy exclaimed as he patted his chest. "Even Max can't find them!"

Which, in turn, made me shoot him a withering glare and then worry about where he really was keeping these things.

Fang, Mr. Solitary, was sitting in the middle of the room by himself tying his shoes. I scooted over, wincing as my injured wing throbbed again. "Any ideas?" I whispered.

He shook his head. "Not really."

I craned my neck up and looked up at the ceiling. "We're in a freaking concrete bunker. It looks like the only way out is the door-"

And that moment was, coincidentally, the moment that the door opened.

Artemis's POV

Artemis had run through the encounter several times on his way down the stairs, but his predictions and general schematic of the scene were very far off par.

He opened the door to have six heads swivel towards him. He swallowed nervously, and reached up to adjust his tie… until he realized he wasn't wearing one. He was glad that he had at least taken the time to change out of his _Randomosity _t-shirt and into a snappy button up top before the meeting. He might've died had he been seen by other individuals besides his family and Butler in anything less casual than what he was wearing at the moment. He winced when he realized that he was still wearing the jeans.

But onto the moment itself. Artemis cleared his throat, realizing he would have to be the first to speak. "Hello."

No response.

Artemis felt a bead of perspiration slide down the back of his neck. "I'm sorry," he ventured out, hoping to form some resolution between their two parties.

The oldest female with the broken wing chuckled from her position on the floor. "Sorry doesn't fix my wing. Anything else?"

Artemis was a bit shocked, but nevertheless pushed on. "We can fashion a splint, if that would help."

"It would, but I'm not sure that I really want it." She stood up, wincing almost imperceptibly. Brushing some dirt off of her jeans, she spoke again. "Where's Total?"

Artemis's brow furrowed. "Total?"

The little blond girl looked up from her position across from the African-American one. "My dog."

_They came here for the dog? _Artemis thought, puzzled. Nevertheless, if that was the only reason that they were here, he wouldn't harbor any feelings of sentiment over the surly animal. Nevertheless, he was itching to take a look at their wings. And if that kind of recombinant DNA science and application was possible, then it may not have entirely been his imagination that the dog ("Total", he reminded himself) had actually spoken.

He cleared his throat. "Of course, I'll fetch him right-"

He felt something brush up against him. "Don't worry, I'm already here."

Artemis's jaw very nearly fell off as the dog trotted right past him to sit next to the blond girl. "Took you guys long enough," it muttered.

You would've thought that after seeing fairies, magic, and even wings, Artemis would've gotten over the initial shock of unorthodox creatures and such. It was true that he had almost come to expect them every once and a while, but there were very few people that would not be surprised by a talking dog. Even the great Artemis Fowl didn't fit into this elite category.

He swallowed. "So, your dog-"

"Talks, yeah," the lead female confirmed. "Surprising, isn't it."

"Mildly."

She sighed, then rapped the shoulder of the male next to her. He stood up, and she began speaking again. "Can we go? All we're making is small talk, and I think that it's a bit of a waste that we got dragged down here just for nothing. If you're out of things to say…"

"Well, if you don't mind answering a couple of questions about-"

"Our wings?" This time it was the strawberry blond male that interrupted him. "Yeah, they're real. And yeah, they work." He shook his a bit as if to prove the point.

Artemis took an involuntary step forward, as any scientist would. He realized his mistake, then backed up a fraction of a foot. "I don't suppose I could-"

"Take a look?" The dark haired male deadpanned. "No thanks. We've had enough of that."

Artemis growled. "Can I finish one sentence?"

"No," they all chorused.

He took a deep breath. He had dealt with others with just as annoying tendencies, and he was _Artemis Fowl_. He never lost his cool, excluding the time period while he was under the influence of his own deranged mind. He supposed that he had no true reason to keep them here, unless he kept them here by force… He grimaced. His own ethics nearly prevented him from doing so, but the scientist in him screamed for a study and a few lab tests. These children were the front of genetic engineering, if what they said and what he saw was true.

His ethics and his mind were conflicting. So what should he do?

Max's POV

_Max._

I heard Angel's voice clearly inside my mind, and I nodded subtly to acknowledge that I had heard her without directly looking at her.

I felt her in my mind again, and if you didn't think that was a weird sentence you might want to read it again. _**He's undecided, almost like he's arguing with himself. **_

I nodded again, and knowing that she was still in my mind, I shot out a thought.

_We've got to get out, before he does decide. Can you get the big guy?_

I snuck a glance at her, and saw her biting her lip. _**He resisted before, but I can try. **_

_When I give the signal. _I nodded almost imperceptibly, seeing the teenage boy's eyes on me again, hoping that he'd only think my head was dipping a little. This kid shouldn't be too had to push past, but the fact that his friend was twice as tall as Angel and probably weighed four times as much and was able to take down all of us was a little disturbing. Not to mention the fact that he had been able to take down all of us singlehandedly, even if it was with a tranquilizer gun. We had dodged bullets before, but not this time I suppose. All we could do was hope that Angel could get inside his mind this time and help us escape.

I heard the teenager clear his throat, and shot my gaze level with his. " I would love the opportunity to run a few tests on you and your DNA," he ventured out tentatively. "I'd be happy to compensate you in any way."

I laughed. "If I had a dollar for every time I heard something like that. Thanks, but no thanks. We've had enough tests to last us a lifetime."

"I won't run them without your consent, but I can give you anything. Money, lodging, clothing, or I can even heal your wing." He bargained. "Just tell me and I can give it to you."

_A way to heal my wing besides time and a good splint? No thanks. _I blew a piece of hair out of my eye and pretended like I was thinking. "I think I know what we'd want."  
He perked up, or rather stood straighter up as the worked _perked_ couldn't really seem like it could be used to describe him. "Tell me."

I gazed straight into his eyes, realizing that they were mismatched, one an icy blue and the other a warm hazel. "I think I'd like you to let us go. _Now._" I emphasized the word, simultaneously thinking it as loud as I could in my mind to Angel, shooting a glance towards her to make sure she heard it. She nodded in assent.

I began walking confidently towards the door, and watched as the larger man's brow began to furrow. A bead of sweat dripped down the side of his broad head. Pushing past the boy and watching in amusement as his mouth fell open in a small o, I continued towards the door.

What really surprised me was when the large man's hand reached out to stop me.

I turned around at Angel and saw her concentrating, her smaller brow furrowed in the exact same fashion as the man's. His hand still remained out in front of me, not wavering, or more importantly, not moving.

I looked back at Angel. _What was going on?_

**Okay, I have to cut off there. This chapter is driving me nuts, and I wanted to get Holly or someone in at the end, but I couldn't. I'm sorry that's such a weird place to cut off though. My apologies.**

**I'm really sorry about not updating on time too. I feel like a failure… but I will do my best to do better next time! I won't make any promises though or commitments, because we all know how THOSE turn out with me… But I'll try better, I promise!**

**I'd also like to thank Dunking-SARCASM for PM'ing me. You inspired me to get off of my lazy butt and write this, so you get an e-cookie! *gives cookie* **

**Also, thanks for all of your reviews! You guys ROCK. You are the fuel of this story. **

**Playlist:**

**Shunkan Sentimental- Scandal**

**Period- Chemistry**

**Golden Time Lover- Sukima Switch **

**Let it Out- Miho Fukuhara**

**Love Japanese music :) And if anyone can tell me what anime those songs are from, you get an e-cookie.**

**R&R?**


	7. Chapter 7

**I'm going to start putting A/N's at the bottom now.**

Holly's POV

Holly swerved through the hallways and corridors of Police Plaza at a brisk clip, hurriedly responding to Foaly's ping. She had finally accepted the promotion to major, only to find that all of her hesitancies and qualms regarding the position were true. Day after day she was cooped up in a cubicle filling out paperwork, signing forms, and analyzing data set after data set. She was coming down with a case of cabin fever (or rather, cubicle fever) and was seriously regretting taking the position. Internal Affairs had pushed her to do so, saying it was the right choice for her, but now she barely ever saw the bright light of the surface. She supposed that was why Internal Affairs had pushed her to take the position in the first place. Her aboveground actions often resulted in a tribunal. Although, she was sure that she would end up creating the need for one if she stayed belowground.

So to sum it all up, she was bored. Holly was tired of the thin stream of officers popping in her office to hand her an e-drive of data, tired of the countless seconds wasted thinking about the best possible ways to destroy said e-drives and make it look like an accident, tired of her shuffling assistant, Maxwell, who complained so much that he took more time off than she did, and very tired of everything she had to put up with from Trouble. Since she was a higher-ranking officer now, h

This led to the reason why she was so eager to make it to the Ops Booth and to Foaly. The centaur had all but promised her an aboveground mission. One that she would have to assign to herself, of course, but the Foaly would provide a legit excuse. She was probably the only higher ranked officer that the Council kept on constant watch, and probably the only one that wasn't able to assign herself the odd aboveground mission with a fake purpose just to get some fresh air. She knew she'd be docked an acorn or two if she tried. That was why, now, she honestly didn't care what she was heading out to do, but as long as it was it was aboveground, it didn't matter either way to her. She'd take down another troll again if she had to.

After a few moments consideration though, she decided she might not risk it.

Lost in her thoughts, Holly nearly ran into a portly gnome carrying several cups of organic coffee. _Probably on his way to Trouble, _she thought somewhat irately. Her commander had created and put to use the unofficial law of coffee, which basically meant that the more acorns on your lapel, the higher you were in the order to get coffee in the mornings. Which, as commander, put Trouble first on the list. Of course, Holly was a major, so she was fairly high as well, but everyone at Police Plaza knew that the first ten or so cups of coffee out of the outdated machine were the best.

Pivoting around another sharp corner, she finally managed to reach the Ops Booth. Punching in the fifteen-digit pass code Foaly forced her to memorize each week so he didn't have to open the door for her, she tapped her foot impatiently. After what seemed like forever, a small green light lit up. After waiting for the click of the door unlocking, she sighed and realized that it was _Foaly's _door, and it would be completely electronic. She wished she would've realized that he would have shuddered at the mere mention of an "old-fashioned" deadbolt, and pulled open the frosted glass door.

Foaly was typing up something unidentifiable on his keyboard, which he had finally resigned to upgrading to at least the latest mud man model that had been specially engineered to have softer keys. "Our boy's up to something," he spoke clearly without looking up from his screen.

"Artemis?" She asked, realizing it was a stupid question as the slid into the seat next to her centaur friend. She wormed into the familiar feeling of the fabric and padding, as the seat had been set out almost exclusively for her and she sat in it nearly every day.

Foaly shot her a pointed look. "No, the leader of the free world," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. His gaze returned to the screen, which he was now examining intently. "And don't say that Artemis is," he began. "Because he very may well be from behind the scenes, but most of the Mud Men don't know that."

Holly raised an eyebrow, knowing that Foaly would see it out of his peripheral vision. "So, it is Artemis?" She ventured tentatively.

The centaur sighed. "Yes, it is Artemis. Take a look. But don't get too close, these are expensive." As leaned forward (carefully) to look at Foaly's screen, she could've sworn she heard him mutter something along the lines of, "Officers."

She ignored the jibe and examined the screen. "Look familiar?" Foaly prompted.

After a few moments of staring at the oh-so-precious plasma screen, her mouth fell agape. "That's my cell!" She shook her head. "I would've thought Artemis would've destroyed that." Disappointment in the young Fowl colored the edges of her tone.

Foaly sighed, leaning back in his chair. "Yeah, well, he didn't. And now it's occupied."

"By who?"

"Take a look."

Holly took another look at the screen, her mismatched eyes squinting slightly. "Who- or what- is that?"

Foaly steepled his fingers. "That's what I'd like you to examine. You see the wings, correct?"

Now it was Holly's turn to shoot an irritable glance at her friend. "Yes, I see the wings. They're not real, though, are they?"

Foaly bit his lip. "Ah, well. That's the thing." He pulled up another window on his screen. "I remembered reading something like this a while back." He pointed at the screen, motioning for Holly to come closer and read it. She stayed where she was, knowing that the centaur would read it out loud anyways.

"_Reverse amniocentesis procedure success." _He read directly off of the page._ "Avian DNA inserted into first fetus. Standard amniocentesis procedure reveals that genes successfully merged, creating recombinant DNA. Target DNA sequence viable, few differences observed. Host DNA that avian DNA has grafted to is not known. Result of experiment not predictable at this time."_

Foaly leaned back in his chair, finishing off his spiel.

Holly bit her lip. "So, these kids are hybrids? I understood that correctly, didn't I?"  
Foaly nodded curtly. "We haven't even proceeded with the experiments that we would have to conduct to create a similar life form. The Council deemed it inhumane. Which, honestly, it is. There's no way to know if the subject will survive."

Holly felt part of her stomach clench. The thought of a sentient creature being experimented on even as a fetus, and the prospect of it likely dying in the process didn't appeal to her all that much. She didn't really like the thought of anything dying, unless the other alterative was _herself _dying. Either that, or someone she cared about very much.

In her opinion, no one really deserved to die.

"So, you want to study them since you can't create one yourself." She replied several seconds later to Foaly.

He nodded, and then turned back to his computer. "They really are marvelous. Imagine if we could trace the process in which they were made, and if the council approved it, all of us could fly naturally. No more depending on wings."

Holly's heart almost leapt out of her chest. _No more depending on wings. _"But that would only be for new generations, right? Unborn children. That's what these kids are, aren't they?"

Foaly nodded. "Based on these research notes, I would guess yes. It'd most likely be extremely difficult to graft foreign DNA to the host if the host is past the embryonic or fetal stage. Most likely very painful for the host as well."

Holly took the information in, and surmised her next question based off of the excitement in Foaly's voice and everything she knew about his personality. "So, I'm assuming you want me to bring them back here for you to study?"

"Just one will do," the centaur replied. "I'm sure that they're all very similar in their DNA." He reconsidered his statement. "Well, truthfully, they aren't, but you catch my drift."

She nodded. "You'd like me to leave right away?"

The centaur bit his lip sarcastically. "Well, how about next week; does that work for you?" He shot her a withering glare. "Of course I want you to leave right now. Who knows how long Artemis can contain them."

She bitterly laughed. "With Artemis, there's really no way to tell. His old self would keep them contained for study, but now there's a slim chance he'd let them go freely."

Foaly signaled his agreement with a slight dip of his head. "You're absolutely right. We don't know our Mud Boy as well as we used to."

"Exactly." Holly agreed. She sighed. "I should probably get going. I'll miss all the fun."

Foaly shooed her off with a wave of his hand. "Shoo, be gone. Bring me back a child, nicely of course."

Holly grabbed her helmet and fit it snugly onto her head. "No other way."

**.**

**.**

**.**

**Okay. I didn't die. I apologize for the super-long wait; I should've at the very least said that this was on hiatus… my apologies. I won't make excuses; I was just EXTREMELY busy and have been for a really long time. High school kind of hit me in the face. It's fun though. On the downside, I have no idea when I'll be able to update, sadly.**

**Anywhoo, I'd like to thank anyone who's still stuck with this story. It means a lot :) I'm not entirely satisfied with this chapter, as it seems pretty OOC and I don't like the way I wrapped it up at the end. I just kind of needed some closing dialogue. Comments/criticism are greatly appreciated as always.**

**Thanks!**


	8. Chapter 8

Holly's POV

Holly flew over the Irish countryside, only appreciating the beauty half as much as she usually did when visiting her friend. Usually the rolling green hills, gentle breezes, and overall natural beauty of the country managed to put her in a better mood than she had left Police Plaza in. This time, however, she wasn't making a social call. Artemis appeared to have reverted back to his old ways, albeit while wearing denim jeans.

The elf refused to believe that though. Her friend of many adventures had really changed. He spent almost as much time with his younger brothers as he did refining his latest plan of action for whatever crisis he was trying to manage, whether it be fairy, environmental, or even political (from behind the scenes, of course). Artemis wouldn't kidnap these kids for a ransom like he had with Holly years ago. He had no need for the money, as the Fowl enterprises (now completely legitimate and within the law) were flourishing.

Holly suspected that he had detained them for the same reason she was going to retrieve one: to study and try to unravel the secrets of one of the organisms. She wasn't sure if she even particularly agreed with Foaly's desired course of action, but she was so desperate for this excuse to come aboveground that she wasn't going to turn down the mission. At least she didn't have to worry about shielding or anything of the sort around Artemis.

She forced her mind to leave the subject and simply concentrate and appreciate flying over Ireland. Since she had an aboveground mission, she was going to enjoy it to the fullest extent possible. Within minutes, Fowl Manor loomed into view, the estate looking the same as it always had. Holly still remembered the siege of Fowl Manor with stunning clarity. She winced. That time, she had been the one trapped in the cell.

Touching down on the grounds with a perfectly textbook landing, she retracted the wings into her suit and began to shield. The suit accepted and amplified her vibrations, requiring less magic to be expended on the action. She wasn't shielding to hide herself from Artemis (she knew that there was no hiding from that Mud Boy) but rather to prevent one of the staff that were not aware of their resident's fairy friend from getting a fright upon seeing an armed LEP officer stalking around the grounds. She snuck in via the window in Artemis's study, because she knew that he almost always left it unlocked in the event of a surprise visit. If any thief tried to venture in through the window, a security camera would pick them up and they would be forcefully ejected from the premises. Any thief more dangerous than the average burglar would have countless and more secure ways to enter the Manor anyways.

Extending her wings, Holly flew out of the study and through the entryway. The ceilings were high enough inside the mansion for her to zip through the halls like a hummingbird, and flying was faster and less noticeable than walking anyways.

Plus, flying through the halls was just too good a chance to pass up.

Within seconds Holly had reached the door to her former cell, and the first thing she saw was Butler within the doorway and blocking her view into the room with his massive frame. Artemis was slightly to his right, looking slightly stunned as a tall, skinny girl pushed him aside. That didn't surprise the officer, the boy was a stick who could barely lift up a boxing glove, much less hit anyone with it. Butler reached out a hand to stop her from passing, and that didn't shock her either.

What did surprise her though was the fact that Butler was _struggling_.

Holly saw a bead of sweat drip down the crown of his shaven head and his hand that had been rock solid before now trembled obviously. The girl couldn't have been that strong to make him exert himself like this, and it didn't even look like she was trying. She was just standing there in puzzlement, glancing back into the room. Sighing, Holly rolled back her shoulders and turned on her shield. She hated to break Butler's concentration on whatever was going on, but she needed to get past him in order to incapacitate the girl. Without hesitation, she ran towards Butler's leg and punched the back of his knee, quickly moving out of the way before his concentration shattered and he stumbled to the ground, unconscious from the exertion. Today was not the day that Captain Holly Short of the LEP was crushed by one of her favorite Mud Men.

The girl looked stunned and made the mistake of looking back at whom Holly could now see was a young girl with short blonde curls. Holly quickly moved forward invisibly and shocked the girl with the lowest setting on her buzz baton, aiming to only knock her out for a few minutes. As she fell to the ground with a muttered expletive, Holly flitted around the room and did the same to all of the other children in the room, feeling a sharp pang of guilt at attacking them without provocation.

When they were all on the ground, Holly turned off her shield and shimmered into visibility, hovering at Artemis's eye level so he wouldn't have to look down at her. He wasn't as short as he had been when she had first met him, and now had almost three feet on her. He groaned, putting his head in one hand and muttering something akin to, "I should've known".

Holly harrumphed and took off her helmet. "Good to see you too, Artemis."

He looked at her, his eyes softening somewhat. "How are you, Holly? It's nice to see you."

She brushed some hair out of her face. "I'm fine, thanks. Wish we could just get together for a cup of sim coffee like normal people, though."

Artemis glanced around the room at the unconscious bird children. "Bit awkward, this. I don't mean them any harm."

She raised an eyebrow. "Which is exactly why you've tranquilized them and put them in my concrete cell."

He bit his lip. "Yes, well. They came to me in the first place looking for the dog, which I'm sure you already knew about. Foaly never seems to miss the chance to embarrass me, at any rate. To the point, however, I only wanted to briefly-"

"Study them, I know." She cut him off. "Foaly sent me to bring one of them back for the same purpose."

Artemis frowned. "That centaur." He paused for a moment. "Well, I can assure you that they won't come quietly. Is it really ethical to just kidnap one and hold them captive for study?"

Holly crossed her arms, holding her helmet in one hand. "I don't know, you tell me."

The genius let a flicker of guilt flash across his face before sighing. "I've apologized numerous times, Captain, can we just pretend that at one point I wasn't a despicable, petulant child and move on with our lives?"

She smiled, never missing the chance to torture him. "Of course, I thought we already had."

He scowled. "Then why do you keep bringing it up?"

This time she raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think? You need to be humbled somehow. Anyway…" She trailed off as she observed the room. "What do we do now, genius?"

"Let us go!" Holly heard a voice that was certainly not Artemis exclaim as something clamped on to her ankle, dragging her down a foot before she took control of the wings again. A small, black dog was steadfastly hanging off of her uniformed leg, his teeth attempting to pierce the uniform. She flicked her eyes up to Artemis, who resignedly grabbed the dog gingerly off of her leg as he grimaced in distaste. It squirmed in his arms as an expression of distaste crossed his features. "Who do you people think you are?" The dog said as it squirmed in the Irish teen's arms.

Artemis's brow furrowed and he ignored the dog as he turned to Holly. "You knew it talked?"

Ignoring a muffled, "I have a name!" from the dog, the hovering officer nodded. "Of course. You didn't before today? It was muttering to itself all around the house. Foaly was having a field day watching it insult you."

There was a sharp yap as the dog squirmed out of Artemis's arms and he looked pointedly at the boy then at Holly. "I hate barking, but sometimes you need to. My name is Total, so stop calling me 'it'. Now let us go or I'll take you both out!"

Wondering if the dog- Total- could do anything more than talk, Holly's moved slightly closer to her gun. "I promise that I won't harm any of you. My supervisor merely wants to run some tests on your friends' blood and physical state. You won't even remember it afterwards." _The People deserve their wings again, _she thought, refraining from saying it aloud.

Suddenly, her wrist beeped, telling her that she had a communication link pending. Artemis raised an eyebrow, looking pointedly at her helmet. She quickly put it on, opening the com link to Police Plaza with a quick sequence of blinks and facial movements. Foaly's face filled her visor, his enormous plasma screen serving as the backdrop of his image. Something was off though; the centaur didn't look as pompous as usual.

"Foaly, what's wrong?" She said, cutting to the chase. If it was serious, she needed to know as soon as possible.

The technician bit his lip. "It could be nothing, but there's a transport headed your way at high speed. I can't tell if it's armed or not, or who it is."

Her hand quickly moved to grip her Neutrino out of instinct. "D'Arvit. Fairy, I assume?"

The corner of Foaly's mouth twitched. "That's the thing. It's… human, but they shouldn't be this advanced. It's not quite where our technology is, but it's pretty dang close. I definitely detected human parts in its makeup though."

A frown crossed the elf's features. "So you have no idea what we're dealing with whatsoever."

The centaur looked as if he was trying to hold something back. "Well, no… I mean, it's foreign all right, but there has to be something we can deduce. I know they're faster than-"

Holly cut him off. "Just admit you know nothing so we can move on and take action."

He sighed resignedly. "Okay, fine. I have no idea what we're dealing with here or if it's even dangerous, so just… brace yourself, okay? I don't want you, Artemis, or any of those kids getting hurt, you hear me? You and Butler have to protect everyone from whatever's coming."

"How long until it gets here?" She asked, checking the clock on her visor.

"Eight minutes, twenty-two seconds," Foaly said, checking one of his screens. "Get moving to somewhere safe."

She nodded. "Okay. Thanks for the warning." She closed the link with several blinks and removed the helmet. Swallowing, she turned to Artemis, who undoubtedly already had deduced most of what was going on.

"Something's coming," he said, not breaking eye contact.

"Yep."

"Foaly has no idea what it is."

"Yep."

"Likely dangerous."

"Is it ever not dangerous?"

The teen rolled up the sleeves of his button-up shirt, a gesture of informality that Artemis rarely ever demonstrated. _He's changed so much since I first met him_, Holly thought absentmindedly. _Now, he's not afraid to think and get his hands dirty_.

"What do we need to do to prepare?" He asked. Holly could already see the cogs beginning to turn in his head.  
She gripped her Neutrino harder. "Wake up Butler, protect the kids, and hold down the fort. Where's the safest place in the manor?"

"My study," Artemis answered automatically. "We need to all get there as soon as possible."

Holly hovered down to the ground and eyed the dog, who was now quiet and serious. "Try to wake them up. They should be ready to anyways," she said, startling him with her direct communication. Surprisingly, he nodded, somehow comprehending the gravity of the situation and willing to consent to her demands in order to protect his own. "Artemis, get Butler. Tell him to bring all of his guns and anything else he thinks we'll need." The teen complied, moving to his now stirring companion.

Holly touched down next to the blonde girl with the injured wing, the one that seemed to be in charge. She grabbed her shoulder, shaking it firmly but not too vigorously. For all she knew, her wing hadn't been the only thing injured. "Wake up," the officer said as the girl stirred, her eyelids fluttering. She looked up at Holly, eyes automatically narrowing.

"There's no time," the officer said, forcing the girl to sit. "We have to move to safety."

The girl's eyes narrowed. "Why should I trust you?"

Holly checked her wrist. Seven minutes left. "If you don't, I can't protect you. Something's coming and I don't know what, so if you want to protect everyone get them moving and listen to me."

She shakily stood up, retracting her wings and folding them up with a grimace. "I'm just supposed to follow you? This could be a trap."

Holly glanced back, already having moved on to a dark skinned girl who was beginning to wake up slowly. "Well, you know how dangerous I am. Whatever's coming is unknown. You can either trust what you know or gamble with your life. It's up to you."

The girl's gaze hardened. "I don't trust you, but…" She looked around the room. "I have to protect them. But understand, midget, if this turns out to be a trap I will personally kick you and prissy-boy's behinds into next week, you got that?"

The Captain raised an eyebrow. _Midget?_ She let it slide, deciding that the situation was too severe to worry about such trivial things. "Duly noted." The dog had managed to wake up several of the other kids by jumping on their chests, and they were all groggily standing, automatically deferring to the girl, their leader. Holly helped the African-American girl to her feet, pulling her up without allowing her to question her actions.

Looking around, it seemed like everyone, including Butler and Artemis, was ready to move. She nodded at the genius, activating her wings again. "Let's move to the study. Stay close, shut up, and follow me. Butler, I'm sure Artemis told you to bring-"

The manservant nodded. "Everything."

She confirmed with a quick dip of her head. "Everything." She flew past him and out the doorway, glancing back to make sure that everyone was following her with the appropriate sense of urgency. She flicked up the setting on her Neutrino, feeling safer with it ready to fire. She nodded, moving quickly up the stairs. The entire party moved silently and quickly up towards Artemis's study, Butler breaking off and running to grab his weapons stock and a few other things. Holly led the group up to the study, the manservant entering thirty seconds later despite his detour.

The kids, to their credit, had remained silent the entire time and were now huddling together with the girl and a dark haired, solemn boy in front. She turned to Artemis. "Lock it down."

Artemis turned to one of the many computer monitors lining the room, typing furiously. Suddenly, metal plates converged to cover the windows and the door, blocking out all natural light. The artificial lights turned on, and a drawer of provisions slid out from the wall including bottled water, freeze dried meals, and a first aid kit. Artemis punched in several more commands then withdrew his fingers from the keyboard.

Holly whistled. "Not that I'm not thankful for it, but isn't this a bit overkill?"

He touched the tips of his fingers together. "You seem to forget how paranoid I was under the complex."

Holly nodded, not wanting to remember in the first place. She glanced around the room, eyeing Butler who was organizing his weapons and the kids, who were all listening to the leader girl as she explained the situation. Once again, she locked eyes with Artemis, hazel and blue meeting hazel and blue. They both knew that there was nothing to do now but wait.

**A/N: This story isn't dead. I'm sorry for not updating it in over a year but I simply lost inspiration and just couldn't write anything good. However, I'm feeling better about it now so hopefully I'll be able to crank out a few more chapters before I get super-busy or lose inspiration again. If you're still reading this after such a ridiculous gap, I just want to say thank you for sticking with this story. I can't even believe that people still care about it, and that was what ultimately was what inspired me to write more of it. Thank you for reading! Reviews and criticisms are always appreciated, but simply reading it is amazing too :)**

**(Oh, and random tidbit. I just watched all of Soul Eater and am in the process of reading the manga, and somehow my mind thinks made some weird connection between Death the Kid and Artemis. I can't get Kid out of my head when I'm writing for Artemis, haha :P)**

**~haaschiibrownii**


	9. Chapter 9

Max's POV

Well, this day officially sucked.

I can't say I was all to pleased when we were drugged and imprisoned in the first place, but then being knocked out for the second time in a day, informed I was in danger (shocker) and taken to safety by the very pompous brat who had ordered my flock and I to be shot down in the first place. Still though, I didn't have much choice. What the midget girl had said was true. I had already knew how dangerous she and the giant were, but I had no idea what was coming and to be quite frank, I don't think she knew what was coming either. Now, we were all stuck together in the creepy kid's study (What kind of kid had a study?) waiting for something to happen.

I finished explaining the situation to my flock, none of which seemed that happy about it either. Clearing my throat, I turned to face the three other people in the room, Fang inching a little closer to me. Their heads turned to look at me, waiting for me to speak. "Okay," I said. "You all need to explain everything to us, right now or I'm going to tear you limb from limb. First question: Who are you?"

The corner of the boy's mouth twitched as if he found what I said amusing. "My name is Artemis Fowl the Second, heir to the Fowl estate. This is Butler, my most trusted friend and bodyguard. Finally, this is Captain Holly Short of the Lower Elements Police," he said, gesturing to the short woman who had woken me up.

I raised an eyebrow. "Lower Elements? Can't say I've heard of it."

She put her gun back in its holster on her hip. "It's underground."

"Wait, so it's like some hipster club?" Nudge asked, eyebrows knit in confusion. I shot her a withering glare as the Captain rolled her eyes.

"No, it's literally underground," the short woman replied. Brushing back her close-cropped hair, she exposed a long, pointed ear. "I'm an elf, we've been living underground for years."

I crossed my arms. "And we've never heard of you because…?"

She crossed her petite arms in response. "We're a bit better at hiding than the average earthworm."

"So, there's a secret elf colony below our feet then?" Iggy asked somewhat sarcastically.

She scoffed. "Colony hardly describes it. Try highly functional civilization embedded in the Earth's crust. And there are more than just elves. We're only a small subset of the People."

Artemis caught her attention, interrupting her explanation. He then proceeded to say something in a language that I didn't recognize whatsoever with plenty of guttural throat noises, still making it sound somewhat…elegant. We've traveled plenty of places, sure, but this was unlike anything I've ever heard.

Without blinking, the Captain replied in the same fashion. They conversed briefly, Artemis seeming skeptical. The rest of us just stood there, blinking, waiting for them to finish. I tapped my foot impatiently, not liking being left out of the loop. I wasn't going to tolerate this, crisis situation or not.

Just as I was about to interrupt them, the stopped and I heard a high voice from behind me. "I can read minds, you know." Angel stepped out from behind me, not missing a beat. "What's a mindwipe?"

If Artemis could have gotten any paler than he already was, he did. "You can what?"

She looked him straight in the eye. _Atta girl, _I thought. "I said, I can read minds. Even though you're speaking…" she paused for a moment, as if trying to remember something. "Gnommish, I can still read whatever you're thinking, which is conveniently in your native language, English." She smirked and waited for him to respond.

He merely sat there for a moment, and then glanced at Captain Short who merely shrugged. Turning his gaze back to us, he sighed, running a hand through his hair. I saw Angel smirk and I could only imagine what was running through pretty boy's head right now. He turned to the shrimp- elf- and extended a hand towards us. "They're all yours after this is over."

She sighed, brushing her bangs out of her face. "Duly noted." Then she turned to the rest of us. "Those matters can be dealt with later. In any case, how capable are you against an enemy?"

I laughed. "You're asking us? I've taken down so many Erasers that I had to stop keeping count when I was eleven. Don't even get me started on these guys."

This time it was the hulking mountain of a man who spoke, raising an eyebrow. "Erasers?"

"Human-lupine hybrids," Fang said, speaking for the first time. "Like us, but they die sooner."

I flicked my gaze over to Artemis to gauge his reaction, but he seemed to be lost in thought. The Captain merely nodded, not seeming fazed by the idea. "How capable are you with weapons?"

I bit my lip. "We prefer hand to hand combat, but I could probably shoot a gun if I needed to. Gaz and Ig over here build bombs." I turned to them. "You guys have any on you?"

Iggy sighed dramatically. "No, they were confiscated when we were shot out of the sky and trapped in a cell. However, if there were any left, we might be able to do something."

The Butler guy nodded and rummaged through his bulging bag of weapons and pulled out several of Iggy and Gazzy's homemade bombs, briefly inspecting them before tossing them into Gazzy's outstretched hands. "Nice work, for the materials you had."

Gazzy turned to Iggy, handing him several of the bombs, which he placed in various locations on his person. "Remember that time when we used Max's alarm clock? I almost wish that could've been the detonator for the big Eraser bomb. It would've been more poetic."

My eye twitched. "Not the time, guys." I turned back to Holly, who I had resignedly accepted as the one in charge. She seemed to know the most about what was going on, and I certainly wasn't going to turn to the Fowl kid for orders. "What's the plan? How do we combat whatever's coming?"

"That's the thing," she began, biting her lip. "We don't know what's coming, so all we can really do is prepare for the most likely scenario. All I know is that it looks human, but it's moving faster than any human transport I've ever seen." I ran through my list of enemies. There shouldn't be anyone back at us so soon after Germany, but things could always change quickly.

Suddenly I thought of something. "Do you know who it's after? I don't want to seem self-centered but we're not exactly just your everyday kids. I grew up in a cage, and I'm not too keen on returning." I put the idea out there. "Maybe if we knew who it was after we'd have a better chance of defending ourselves against it".

Holly nodded. "That's a possibility. Artemis, what do you think? I trust you haven't made any new enemies since Argon released you. It's been, what, a month?"

"And three weeks," he continued without missing a beat. "My mother's been making me stay mostly to myself. I haven't been working on anything big lately, so I'm not quite sure what this really could be. There's definitely a large possibility that it's after them, unless someone found my legitimization of the Fowl family's Wikipedia article offensive in some way." He paused for a moment. "At the very least, my family is out of the house. Myles and Beckett have been begging to go to Disney world for the past six months, so Father finally indulged them."

I guess it was kind of a shock to me that this kid had a family that he loved and cared about. Now that I think of it, it'd be pretty strange if he just lived in a manor all by himself with only an elf and a bodyguard, although I don't think the elf lived there at all. They seemed like the closest thing he had to friends, in any case. I shook the thoughts out of my mind, focusing on the situation at hand. "If it's hostile, what's our plan? I need something to work with here."

The Captain shrugged. "If it's hostile, Butler and I fight." When I opened my mouth to protest, she cut me of. "If it's more than we can handle, you're backup. Until then, you're guarding Artemis. And before you say anything," she began as she turned to Artemis, "You need protection. Foaly and I watched a tape from Myles and Beckett's school fair where you were outrun by an elderly woman in a mascot suit." She turned to face me. "I'm entrusting his protection to you. Animosity aside, he's really the only chance we have of getting out of this unscathed."

Reluctantly, I nodded. "How much time?"

She checked her wrist display. "About two minutes. Let's also remember that there's a possibility that they aren't even hostile, or that this bunker will be able to keep them out." She regarded the room. "I've got to admit, Artemis, this is pretty impressive."

He cocked an eyebrow. "You expected any less?"

She sighed. "No, not really."

* * *

Reid Braddock didn't even know exactly whom he was working for.

Nor did he care, in any case. All he needed was the money, and he'd do anything. He liked to think of himself as a simple man, focused on his goal and motivated by the reward. This mission would be a simple routine kidnapping, as long as the man he had been briefed on and already knew enough of from stories didn't get in the way. Everyone in the kind of circles he was in had heard of the infamous Butler. Just in case though, he had brought along several of his second choices for the mission team as well. They were expendable, but still competent. The other targets were all below the age of sixteen, so he and his team should have no problem overcoming them. If not, he'd have his backup sniper tranquilize them.

He didn't doubt the kid knew he was coming; he had been informed by his employer (whoever that was) that the Fowl heir was uncommonly intelligent. Reid didn't care. He had also been informed that the kid couldn't outrun a snail. It would be easy pickings to snatch him, given that the bodyguard of his didn't get too much in the way. The other kids were a bit of a different story. With his men, they shouldn't have too much of a problem subduing them. They supposedly had experience fighting, but his team had been specially trained. And then, of course, there was Reid himself. Six foot seven, with years of specialized training and out for hire with no motivation other than to apply his talents. He was often asked if he killed, kidnapped, and did anything else he was asked to do because of personal vendettas or scores to settle. People couldn't fathom that he simply liked his job and was very, _very_ good at it.

One of his men tapped him on the shoulder. "We'll be arriving at our destination in approximately two minutes," the man said, and Reid nodded curtly.

"Okay, everyone. Lock and load," he instructed. "Make sure you know exactly how to shoot your gun, they're a bit different. I trust you can all figure it out, and if not, you should hop out of this shuttle right now. This mission is simple in design, but there's one difficult target. I trust you've all heard of Butler?"

Several of them nodded nervously, suddenly paling. Reid continued, "He'll be there, and he is Team Beta's priority. The goal is to subdue him. Killing is not necessary, for once. Our employer wishes for him to be kept alive" The members of the secondary squad nodded in unison.

Reid turned to his personal squad, Alpha. "You're with me. Our goal is to kidnap the girl known as Maximum Ride as well as Artemis Fowl. He's intelligent but physically lacking, whereas the other children have fighting experience and will gladly utilize it. You are to subdue the other children, but they're not coming with us. Hawley," he addressed the sniper directly, "You're our last resort if we can't overpower them directly. If Team Beta cannot overcome Butler, then I want you to shoot him." The man nodded, and Reid addressed the group again. "Any questions?"

No one spoke, so he assumed that they were ready. Soon, Fowl Manor loomed into view, dark and foreboding. They drove straight through the gate and up to the front door; something Reid wouldn't have usually been able to do without the equipment that his employer had provided especially for this mission. Between the transport and the weapons, the professional wasn't quite sure what to think about the entire situation. He shook the thoughts out of his head; there was a mission to complete. With a sharp hand signal, they disembarked and ran up to the front door, Reid himself quickly kicking it down without a second thought.

Upon entering the manor, there was a hail of machine gun fire and one of the members of the secondary squad dropped to the ground, a bullet embedding itself in his neck in a lucky spot not covered by the full body armor. The team left him and continued on, bullets bouncing off of the body armor each of them wore and had been given at the beginning of the mission. Reid checked the wrist display. The information told him that they would be upstairs in the kid's study. He briefly wondered how his employer knew this, any of this, but decided not to question it. It only made his mission easier to complete and more straightforward.

They quickly reached the door to the study, supposedly where the entire group had hidden. Reid nearly rubbed his hands together in anticipation. Showtime.

* * *

Artemis frowned at the screen. They had driven through the gate and bypassed the ground security precautions by simply driving straight past them. Their transport was obviously advanced, and the genius felt dread begin to build in his stomach. They weren't just humans, or they weren't serving a human. Not obviously fairy, but certainly too advanced to be human. He glanced back at Holly, who was hovering behind him and could tell that she was thinking the same thing that he was.

"They should be held back by the hall defenses," he muttered to himself, watching as they disembarked. Their lead man kicked down the door, and Butler frowned. "I recognize him, but I can't place it without a face." The entire group was wearing helmets with visors that obscured their face, making any of them difficult to identify.

The feed switched to the entry, and Artemis's somewhat neutral expression morphed into a frown as bullets bounced off of their chest save for one soldier who was hit in the neck. His eyebrows furrowed as the continued up the stairs. And his lips pursed and eye twitched as they came directly to the door to his study, uncannily coming to the location where they were all hiding. Holly laid a hand on his shoulder, reading his mind. "We don't know. It could be someone completely different."

He spun around. There was nothing else he could do now, and nothing to be gained from watching the feed. "What if it is, Holly? What would we do then?" He asked, raising his voice in an uncharacteristic expression of emotion.

Her face fell for a moment, and then she quickly composed herself, squaring her shoulders. "Same thing we always do. Put a stop to it all, but this time for good."

He turned back to the feed, steepling his fingers. After a pause, he spoke clearly and slowly. "That's what we said last time."

* * *

Reid pulled out the laser cutter he had been given prior to the mission. His employer obviously thought he'd need it, so he was going to put it to good use. Setting it to a thin, powerful beam, he pointed it to the door, burning through the wood easily, but being halted by the strong metal underneath. He swore briefly, but concentrated the beam. The metal smoked slightly, but didn't break of give. The beam simply wouldn't be able to cut through. He pressed several buttons on his wrist com, sending the messages he had been instructed to if he couldn't penetrate the study. He settled back, telling his team to stay at attention. There might be other defenses in the hallway, but now all they had to do was wait. The door would open soon enough.

* * *

Artemis had to try and hold back a laugh. "Pathetic," he said. "A laser cutter? I have to admit, I expected more. This study is impenetrable." Part of the bravado was real, but a good deal of it was faked. Usually he would be more confident in his genius, in his friend's abilities, but too much had happened when he wasn't careful. Too many people who he cared about had been harmed because he couldn't save them, and now he had seven innocents that he needed to protect as well.

He bit his lip and drummed his fingers as the lead tapped a sequence of commands on his wrist screen, something far past the human technology he had seen. He had to keep his mind clear of the personal vendettas for now though or his judgment would be clouded my misconceptions. He didn't know whom or what he was dealing with, not yet. He would reserve his suspicions for later.

Turning to Butler, he was pleased to see that his friend was already checking his guns and stashing them in the usual places within his suit and on his person, arming his favorite Sig Sauer. Captain Short was checking her Neutrino, flicking up the setting and pulling on her helmet, obscuring her close-cropped auburn hair, then shielding out of sight. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the children shifting unconsciously into more steady stances, ready to fight if necessary. He could recognize fighting stances easily, even if he couldn't perform them. The two boys were holding one bomb each, ready to set off the timer if needed. They all moved closer to him, the blonde leader (why hadn't he asked her name yet?) shooting a quick glance at him out of the corner of her eye.

Then, Artemis regarded himself and was surprised to see some degree of apprehension. His twelve-year-old self wouldn't have felt an iota of fear, overconfident in his genius and his bodyguard's brawn. But now, years later, Artemis was smarter. And with that came the knowledge that no matter how safe you believed you were, you could only hope and pray for the best.

But Artemis Fowl was not one to get on his knees and beg, not for God, not for anyone. So he steeled his nerves and rose, ready to make a stand in whatever way he could.

* * *

Reid grinned broadly as the message flashed on his screen. _Open. _He moved back to allow Team Beta to go in first, taking the majority of the initial firepower. They could go first so the rest of people who would carry out the brunt of the mission wouldn't die in the initial strike. He knew Butler. It would be difficult, but as long as they were smart about it there was no way the man could defend against this many of them as once. There was always Hawley there if necessarily to sedate the lot of them.

Then, the metal slid up and they swarmed into the study.

Reid was the second to last in in, leaving Hawley just out of sight in the doorway letting the rest do the beginning of the work. He would wrap it up and clean up the loose ends, but he would only intervene in something if his more than capable men were struggling hopelessly. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Butler barreling towards him, albeit hindered by the men that were attempting to incapacitate him. Quickly, he shifted his stance, and shot out a hand that slammed into the giant's windpipe. Butler gasped for air, but still countered by throwing out a kick that hit its mark in Reid's stomach. The team leader grimaced, but disregarded the pain. It looks like he had underestimated this man. The six men that he had dispatched to deal with him should have been more than enough to take down even this legend. Quickly, he nodded to Hawley while responding to the bodyguard's attack with a flurry of hand movements, holstering his gun in one fluid movement.

The sniper took aim, barrel snaking through the air and following the manservant's leg even through the storm of limbs and movements. After several seconds, he fired the first dart, then another in quick succession for quick measure. He knew that the usual dosage of one of his darts wouldn't be enough for this giant of a man. True to his aim, they both found their mark in Butler's leg, piercing the well-tailored suit.

Immediately the manservant stumbled, but regained his balance albeit a bit sluggishly. Reid grinned, increasing the severity of his attack. Butler was failing fast, his movements becoming slow and uncoordinated. He fought to the best of his ability, then with a grunt fell to the ground, incapacitated.

* * *

Artemis watched as Butler fell to the ground and the brunt of the mercenaries turned toward him and the other children. All of a sudden, the blonde girl dove in front of him in order to stop a soldier from landing a blow that would've sent him to the ground, instead countering with one of her own. They fought hand-to-hand, a blur of limbs and movements, her hair flying about wildly as she frowned in concentration.

Artemis merely stood there, mouth gaping, then moved out of the way and behind his desk, weakly grabbing the lamp that he kept for late night reading, brandishing it like a weapon. He saw several of the soldiers that had taken down Butler shot by bursts of light, but the knowledge that Captain Short was assisting them didn't do much for his confidence. Somehow, their body armor merely absorbed the Neutrino blasts in a way that he had never seen before, and she had to hit precisely the exposed skin on their neck in order to take them out.

Between the technology and the fact that they had been able to even permeate his study, there was no doubt about it now. While these men were obviously not fairy, whomever they were working for was, and he had a pretty good idea who would want him out so badly. There was no one else. Panic threatened to overcome him, but he took several deep breaths. Thinking _that_ wouldn't help anything, not now.

He glanced around the room. Several of the mercenaries were on the ground, but it wasn't enough. Nothing would be enough, the rational part of his mind realized. The blonde girl was sweating, concentration etched on her face as she fended off three mercenaries at once, fighting not to be overcome. The small blonde girl who could read minds was concentrating on one mercenary at a time, but it didn't seem like she could incapacitate them, only hold them back. The boys weren't able to detonate the bombs at the risk of harming their friends, and the dark haired boy and African-American girl were back-to-back fighting off three mercenaries.

Then, Artemis watched in horror as Captain Short shimmered into sight, falling to the ground. His eyes flew to the sniper in the corner, still looking through his sight. For the first time, he allowed dread to enter his stomach, not spending time wondering how he had even _seen _her. There was no hope for them now, no matter how good of fighters these kids were. The man who had previously engaged Butler was sneaking up behind the blonde girl, who was so engrossed in her task of halting a mercenary that she didn't notice as he came behind her and covered her mouth and nose with a chloroform cloth. She struggled and kicked, but he was simply too strong. Within several moments, she fell limp.

The man went around the room, doing to the same to the rest of the children. Artemis himself was left alone, but that wouldn't last and he knew it. They just didn't see him as a threat. He tightened his grip around the lamp, ready to do his worst with it. Rationally, it wouldn't do anything and he knew that, but the irrational part insisted that the great Artemis Fowl wouldn't go out without a fight.

Then, with the other children unconscious on the ground and the mercenaries who had been fighting them standing idly in the center of the study, the man smiled and turned to the blonde girl. Her nose was bleeding, and she was struggling defiantly against two of the three mercenaries she had held off that were now restraining her, tightly gripping her arms. The man smiled almost poetically, and then shoved the chloroform cloth over her mouth and nose. She struggled to the best ability, but eventually fell limp, knees buckling, supported only by the grip of the mercenaries who had been restraining her.

And then it was just Artemis.

He brandished the lamp, his throat constricting. "Who are you?" he asked, fighting to keep the fear that he shouldn't have been feeling out of his voice.

The man laughed, pulling off his helmet to reveal a severe mouth and narrow eyes. Artemis wished Butler were here to identify the man, because Artemis didn't recognize him at all. "None of your concern, kid." He moved calmly towards Artemis, who swallowed and brought the lamp back ready to beam him over the head.

The man chuckled, and Artemis swung, not surprised when the man plucked it out of his hands like a toothpick. "See you later," he said, then pushed the genius up against the wall he was backed against, covering his mouth and nose with the cloth.

Artemis held his breath for as long as he could, knowing that it was useless. Eventually, he had to suck in a breath of air and inhaled the sickly sweet smell of chloroform. Two of the mercenaries grabbed his arms to stop him from falling to the ground, and the last thing that he saw was the man's face swimming out of focus.

And then it was all black.

**A/N: At 4475 words, that is officially the longest chapter that I've ever written, so I hope it satisfies you. I apologize for the entire action scene, it was my first time writing something like that. I actually really enjoyed writing it though, especially Artemis. I love writing Artemis's thoughts. Max, not so much. I did really like the POV changes between Reid and Artemis; I hope they weren't confusing. Oh, and Reid is just an OC, he's not from anything.**

**Couple things: One, I don't know if any of you were hoping for pairings or wanted it to be general. I've been entertaining the idea of an Artemis/Max pairing ever so slightly, but I'm not sure. I'm an Artemis/Holly shipper, but I figure if it's a crossover I might as well try new things. Tell me what you think. Two, I'm obviously changing some things from The Last Guardian. Although I did enjoy it, for the sake of this story we're pretending that it doesn't exist. Third, please inform me if anyone's terribly OOC. It's been a while since I've read Artemis Fowl or Maximum Ride, so I'm going to be working on that and redefining the characters in my mind.**

**I think that's it. Thank you for reading this, and if you feel so inclined, please leave a review! I'd love to know what I could work on.**


	10. Chapter 10

I groaned as I woke up, the pounding in my head stabbing into a space directly above my right eye. To be quite honest, I didn't even have it in me to be less-than-thrilled about my second kidnapping of the day; I only felt mild irritation. At least the Fowl kid had some class; that time I didn't end up tied up and thrown into solitary confinement. This time though, I couldn't say so much. My legs were bound at the ankles and knees tightly and expertly, while my wrists were bound uncomfortably behind my back and large coil of rope encircling my chest that, from the heat on my back, was tying me to another person. A person whose shoulder, in fact, I was resting my head on.

I looked up and saw dark hair. Fang, then. I was too groggy to try and wake him up, and didn't have the energy in me to start formulating a plan just yet. I suppose that some part of me should've found my blasé attitude towards kidnapping somewhat disturbing, but I had been kidnapped and imprisoned enough times to lose count. We always managed to get out of it.

I heard a soft groan from behind me. He was waking up then. I moved my head off of his shoulder, gently nudging him with my elbow. "Hey, wake up."

He squirmed for a moment, still not realizing that the ropes wouldn't let him move at all. After a moment, he said, "If I may ask, where are we?"

And then I froze, because that wasn't Fang's voice. Nor would he use so many words for such a simple question. That left…

"…Artemis?"

He sighed. "Who else?" I could feel him testing the bonds, experimentally tugging on each one.

"Anyone else," I muttered under my breath. "Do you know where we are?" I asked slightly louder so he would hear.

He struggled briefly for a moment, and then was still, accepting that he wouldn't get out of the bonds anytime soon. "No. I've never been here before."

I frowned. "Neither have I." Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind. "Wait, where's everyone else?" I looked around for the first time, really looked and took in every detail. It looked like we were in a cliché basement: one flickering light bulb above our heads, boxes along the sides of the room, cold floor, heater unit in the corner, and a set of steps leading up a door from which a crack of light shone through the bottom. No one else was with us. I craned my neck, but it looked like we were the only ones in the room. "Where's the rest of my flock?"

He didn't respond for a moment, then said, "I don't know. I was the last one to be incapacitated, and they didn't seem to be interested in capturing your friends. It seems that you and I were the only targets."

My head fell. I was supposed to do this without my flock and taking care of this guy along the way? It was going to be almost impossible, but if he was as smart as he pretended he was, then we might have a chance. "You couldn't do anything?"

He tensed slightly. "I… attempted, but there was nothing I could do."

I sighed, trying to remind myself that even if I had been the last one standing there wouldn't have been anything that I could've done either. I just couldn't get the image of my flock lying unconscious on the ground while I was held in between two thugs out of my head. After pausing for a moment, I took a deep breath, and said, "Look, pretty boy, we're going to have to be smart about this. Whoever this is… well, they're good at it. We can't afford to take any chances, so just follow my lead, got it?"

"Follow your lead?" He scoffed, mood changing from pensive to mildly irritated. "I'm not quite sure I'd follow someone who can't come up with a better insult than 'pretty boy'. Come to think of it, there's only several people in the world I'm comfortable being subordinate to, and you certainly aren't one of them."

"Oh, I have plenty of insults if you really want them," I growled, my attitude quickly shifting. "We need to work together though. I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that I've probably been in more kidnappings than you. I know how to deal with it."

There was a pause, until Artemis said, "Yes, but I may know who we're dealing with."

I froze, my muscles tensing. "You know? Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"I'm sorry, you were too busy attempting to insult me," he replied testily. "If my suspicions are correct, then this is a more severe situation than I initially thought."

_People managed to get into your nuclear bunker of a study without so much as breaking down the door, take down my flock and your friends, and it can get more severe than that? _I shook my head, clearing the thoughts. "Who is it?"

"No one you would know," he said. "She's done a good job keeping herself hidden from the human world as have the rest of the People. Her name is Opal Koboi."

I snickered. "Your big villain's name is Opal? That sounds like something you'd name a cat."

He sighed. "Please try and take this situation with a degree of severity. Opal is the People's number one enemy. My main concern is how she managed to break out of-"

He froze, cutting out in the middle of the sentence. I immediately tensed. "What, Artemis? What happened?" I scanned the room but nothing seemed out of place excluding the rich kid and bird girl tied up in the middle of the room.

He let out a low growl of frustration. "How could I have been so idiotic? In the aftermath of the Complex I must have let it slide, unless now I'm…" He paused for a moment, and then said clearly, "Four. Four, four, four. Four, eight, twelve, sixteen." He sighed, this time out of relief.

By this point I was more than just a bit fed up with his antics. I tugged on the ropes that bound us together to get his attention. "What did you miss?"

He took a breath, and then said slowly, "There are two Opals. Unless she's freed herself from prison, which is highly unlikely, then we're dealing with the Opal of the past, and her qualms against me are much more recent."

I barely had time to be confused before the door at the top of the stairs flew open.

Fang woke up with a massive headache, lying on a carpeted floor. He groaned, not yet opening his eyes. His body ached all over, and he didn't have the willpower to get up and start functioning. Max could handle things for a couple more minutes, right? She had proven thousands of times over that she was more than capable enough to do most everything without him, so if he just laid here for a couple more minutes she could handle things for-

Suddenly his eyes flew open and he sat bolt upright, still silent as ever. He was still in Artemis's study, signs of a struggle evident all around the room. There were footprints on the floor, papers scattered everywhere, his family lying haphazardly on the ground as they had been when they were knocked out during the fight. Near the desk, there were small droplets of blood on the ground, and Fang distantly remembered that Max had gotten a nosebleed during the fight.

He sat up a bit straighter and did a quick headcount. Angel was over in the corner, Gazzy and Iggy on the left side of the room, Nudge sprawled near the middle, Captain Short unconscious several meters in front of the desk, and Artemis's manservant Butler knocked out cold at the edge of the room near the door. There was no Artemis, and there was no Max. Fang felt something cold slip into his stomach as he double-checked the room. They were gone, an unplugged lamp and several spots of blood on the floor all to tell that they had even been there at all.

He grimaced and stood up, walking over to Iggy who was beginning to stir. His ginger hair was matted and tangled, and his eyelids were just beginning to flicker with the beginning of consciousness. Fang knelt down, and gently put a hand on his shoulder. Iggy started and immediately sat up, his hand moving quickly to his likely throbbing head.

"Fang?" he asked. The blind teenager had long since learned how each of them moved and sounded like.

"Yeah," Fang replied, helping Iggy up. "There's a problem."

Iggy ran a hand through his hair. "We're still at that kid's house though, right?"

Fang nodded, then said, "Yes, but… Max and the Fowl kid are gone."

The corner of Iggy's mouth twitched. "Anyone else?"

"No," Fang replied. "Let's wake everyone else up." Iggy remembered where The Gasman had fallen and moved towards that area, while Fang assisted a groggy Nudge. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Artemis's bodyguard, Butler, standing up and quickly assessing the situation. He and Fang briefly locked eyes and both nodded,  
Fang turning back to Nudge. The unspoken exchange merely showed that they both understood what was happening. They'd regroup once everyone was up and functioning.

After Gazzy helped Angel up, the two parties stood across the room, eying each other. Captain Short was standing groggily, dutifully checking her weapons like any soldier. Finally, Butler spoke, uttering five dreaded words.

"We'll have to work together."

Fang nodded stiffly, sighing internally when he realized that he'd have to be the spokesperson this time instead of Max. "Why would they only take Max and Artemis?"

The Captain and the bodyguard shared a look that spoke volumes before Captain Short cleared her throat and spoke. "There's a very distinct possibility that they've been taken by an old enemy of ours, likely one of the only ones who would have the capability to break in to this study and provide the technology that they used during the raid."

Fang arched an eyebrow as Nudge shifted uncomfortably behind him. "You know?"

"We're not certain," Butler said. "However, that seems to be the direction that the situation points to."

"So who is it?" Iggy asked irately. "You can't just dangle some tidbit of information in front of our faces then keep being secretive about it."

Captain Short pressed several command sequences onto her wrist screen, speaking as she worked. "Her name is Opal Koboi, number one enemy of the people. She's been incarcerated for almost four years now."

"So how is she behind this if she's in jail?" Fang asked, crossing his arms.

"That's the rub," Holly said, looking up from her wrist. "Several months ago, Artemis and I went back in time in order to retrieve a cure for his mother. However, in doing so, we opened up the time stream for the Opal of the past to follow us through and arrive three days earlier, possessing Artemis's mother and causing us to enter into the time stream in the first place. After we pursued her, she escaped and hasn't been heard of since." She brushed a strand of stray hair out of her face. "Long story short, the Opal of the past is running freely in the present."

Fang opened his mouth for a moment, then decided not to question it and deal with the paradox later. "What do you know about her?"

"She's dangerous and ruthless," Butler said immediately. "She's also one of the most intelligent people on or under the planet. Artemis has beat her before, though, and I'm sure he will again."

"Only if you find him!" A singsong voice said from the desk. Immediately Captain Short and Butler both drew their handguns and aimed them towards the source of the noise, the Flock shifting automatically into defensive stances. Cautiously, hand on the trigger, Captain Short advanced towards the source, picking up a wafer thin tablet with a deadly beautiful face plastered on it.

"Captain Short," she began, grinning wildly. "It's been a while, the pleasure is yours."

"Opal," Holly spoke out of gritted teeth, cutting directly to the chase. "You don't belong here. If you turn yourself in to the LEP, we'll assist you in returning to your own time stream."

The pixie laughed, pearly white teeth glinting on the high definition screen. "Turn myself in? What a waste. No, I have plans to carry out."

Fang noticed the Captain's knuckles whitening as she gripped her handgun tightly. "What do those plans entail?"

The pixie beamed onscreen. "Nothing's changed, Captain. I'm sure you can guess."

Holly rubbed her temples, trying to keep her composure. Fang could tell she was nearly at her wit's end. "World domination? Revenge on your enemies?" The elf said, her tone wavering slightly with anger.

The pixie was regarding her nails. "You're so boring, Captain. But yes, that is the general idea."

Fang was about to intervene but held himself back, putting a hand on Iggy's tensed shoulder. Nudge grabbed his hand, squeezing it gently. They all stood silent as Holly gritted her teeth and continued on. "It isn't your time, Opal. You need to return to your own time stream."

"No, I think I like it here. With your new friends, things just became much more…" She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts. "Well, expedited."

The elf took a deep breath. "What do you want me to do?"

The pixie laughed, and Fang felt chills run up and down his spine. "I want to see you dance. I know what you've done to me in this time stream, and I don't intend to let that happen this time around. So for now, I'm content to see you-" the pixie said, pausing for a moment, before exposing a miniature vampiric grin. "-All of you- squirm."

Fang didn't know who this was, but he was immediately uneasy. After fourteen years of Erasers, scientists, cages, and anything else life decided to throw at them, it took something special to set him off kilter, and this brief exchange set his stomach churning. He knew that everyone else was feeling it as well. Nudge's hand clenched his even tighter, Angel moved under his arm and grabbed a fistful of his shirt, Iggy's shoulder tensed under Fang's hand, and the Gasman moved up to stand next to Iggy. Fang still wasn't sure about trusting the Captain and Artemis's bodyguard, but in comparison to that… He'd take the two of them and even Artemis any day, shot out of the sky or not.

Holly finally took her hand off of her gun, clenching it into a tight fist. "Opal, Artemis will outsmart you. He always has, and he always will. You're out of your depth as well as your time."

The pixie sighed. "Enough with the time stream. I'm not even going to consider going back right now, so you can enjoy my company in your present time for just a bit longer." She looked down at something outside the view of the screen. "I'd best be leaving now. Best of luck searching for your friend!" Suddenly, the screen winked out, turning black.

Immediately, Holly's hands flew to the tablet, searching feverishly for a button or control of some sort but only met smooth surface. "D'Arvit!" she yelled, throwing it down on the desk. It hit the wood with a sharp smack, unscathed despite the force of which it had been thrown down. The elf took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.

After a moment, she made eye contact with Butler, who merely nodded, an unspoken exchange passing between the two that Fang couldn't decipher. Then, she turned to make eye contact with Fang, her expression grim but determined.

He let go of Nudge's hand and took his other off of Iggy's shoulder, moving them to his sides. "What now?"

The Captain picked up her helmet from where it was lying on the floor, surprisingly still intact and fully functioning. "Now, we call some friends and _track Opal down._"

**A/N: I hope that this chapter was satisfactory, it was really difficult for me to write for some reason. I also feel like Opal was **_**extremely**_** OOC, but I'm going to place the blame for that on the fact that I haven't read TTP in at least a year. She was really fun to write though, I'll give her that.**

**I put up a poll on my profile for what you all would like to see pairings wise. I asked last chapter, but in order to keep track of everything I ask that you vote. If you mark other, please PM me the pairing you'd like to see so I can add it to the list! There's also the option of no pairings (general), which I am perfectly fine with if that's what you like. **

**As always, thanks for reading and leave a review if you so please! **

**~haaschiibrownii**


	11. Chapter 11

Artemis Fowl had seen better days.

First, he had been dealing with the damnable dog all week. Second, his encounter with the bird children had gone slightly worse than he had planned. Third, his impermeable study had been permeated to say the very least, and now he was stuck in a less than tidy basement tied to a girl whose good side he was certainly not on. And to top it all off, he was wearing jeans. _Jeans._ He knew that if she was the one behind it all, Opal would certainly have a field day with his attire, and that would be just the beginning.

Several minutes ago, the door had flown open and several of the men wearing the strange body armor they had been wearing during the raid came down the stairs, slitting the bonds that tied him and Max together, leaving her on the ground for the time being. The bindings encircling Artemis's legs were cut and he was led up the stairs into a brightly lit hallway. As he was walking out the door, he snuck a look back at Max, catching her eye and nodding. She nodded back, and then the door closed. He would assess what he could, and do his best to deduce the situation.

He was frogmarched by the mercenaries down the corridor, arms still restrained behind his back. His shoulder blades were beginning to feel sore and his wrists were tingling with the pins and needles of inadequate circulation from the rope tightly wound around his skin. He walked calmly, as if the situation didn't bother him whatsoever. Physically, as much as he hated to admit it, he was far out of his depth, but already his mind was assessing the situation, taking in details such as the suspected material of the mercenaries body armor, the color of the walls, the fact that there were no windows in the hallway. They took a sharp left, facing a door at the end of the hallways and Artemis couldn't help but feel that this was too cliché for his liking. First the basement, then the statues that they called guards, and now the mysterious door at the end of the hall. Come to think of it, Opal had probably planned it that way just to irritate him. A flicker of annoyance flashed across his face, but he quickly erased it, returning to his same blasé expression. In this moment, emotion was weakness.

They reached the door, one of the mercenaries opening it. They shoved him inside, one deftly slashing the bindings on his wrist and barely nicking the skin. They slammed the door shut, and Artemis heard the telltale click of a lock closing, effectively trapping him in the room. He brought his hands in front of him, inspecting the miniscule line of blood barely visible on his wrist. It was better than the ropes at the very least, although it stung more than such a small cut should have.

Putting his hands at his sides, Artemis inspected the small room. It was clean, tidy to the point of obsession, and bare minus the ornate desk and two chairs on the opposite sides. Artemis immediately sat in the plush office chair on the backside of the desk, knowing that it was obviously meant for his captor. Although he probably should've been more careful, he was relatively certain that he was dealing with Opal and she would expect behavior like this anyway from him, even welcome it. So he simply settled in, began tapping out Debussy's _Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum_ on the desk, and waited.

It didn't take long for the door to open and a familiar face to show itself at the door. The pixie was as beautiful and deadly as ever, ebony hair cascading down her back and dark eyes shining with mirth. She was, however, not the Opal that Artemis had dealt with during the goblin revolution, or during her attempted plot for revenge – no - this Opal Koboi was more raw, less deranged, and quite possibly much more dangerous. She grinned, teeth glimmering like pearls. "Hello, Artemis. I do believe you're in my seat."

He halted his fingers, crossing his legs defiantly. "And you honestly expect me to move?"

Opal merely smirked. "No, not particularly. Just this once, I'll let you slide. We have other business to discuss besides than a seat."

Artemis merely raised an eyebrow as she pointedly ignored the chair on the other side of the desk and opted to stand, free to move about as she pleased. "This is our problem, Artemis," she began. "Every time I think I have you backed into a corner, you manage to slither out and ruin everything."

The genius crossed his arms. "I hardly think you're able to use the term 'every time'. I daresay we've met more than twice."

The pixie's gaze hardened. "I've been in contact with myself, and it seems that you've been quite the hindrance. This time, I'm not taking any chances."

"So why not simply keep your plans secret?" Artemis queried, trying to pry out more information.

Opal sighed melodramatically, brushing a lock of ebony hair out of her face. "You'd find out at some point, and this way is more fun."

Artemis leaned forward, placing his elbows on the desk and steeling his gaze. "What purpose am I to serve under your control?"

The pixie smirked. "That's exactly it. You're under my control, and therefore are not able to work against me from the outside."

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer," the genius murmured, mind already beginning to unravel his enemy's reasoning.

"Exactly, Artemis," she said, the smirk gone from her face. "Individually, you can't hurt more than a fly without that elf or that bodyguard that follows you like a shadow. If you're here, you're not there. They're useless without you…" she paused, the corners of her mouth twitching. "And you're useless without them."

Artemis steeled his gaze, looking directly into the pixie's eyes. "Oh, I wouldn't count myself out just yet."

Opal laughed, mocking him. "Don't think for a moment that I've counted you out, Artemis. You've only just begun to factor in."

The genius bit his lip, saying nothing. This entire situation unnerved him more than he cared to admit. As much as he was familiar with how the Opal Koboi of his time worked, how she ticked, and most importantly how her past experiences had shaped her, he knew little about this past version of her. It was true that the pixie standing before him had knowledge of her future self's escapades, but memories couldn't be manufactured. One would more readily forget a lesson learned than a lesson experienced. So for the moment, he chose to remain silent. There was nothing more to say that would advance his situation in any way.

The pixie raised one solitary eyebrow. "No response? Have I finally stumped the great Artemis Fowl?"

Fighting the urge to retaliate and get in the last word, he bit his tongue and merely raised his left eyebrow, returning her gesture.

She smiled. "You amuse me. And do go put on the suit I've provided, it's unnerving me to see you so casual." She began to exit the room, her hired henchmen surely waiting on the other side to escort him back. "It's been tailored to your size. I know you wouldn't wear it if it wasn't."

And with that parting comment, she left the room, two guards taking her place on Artemis's side of the door. He was, surprisingly enough, given a neatly folded pile of garments reminiscent of his favorite Armani suit, but he could tell that it was brand new, purchased and tailored especially for his benefit. _Or rather, Opal's,_ he thought wryly as then men exited and he began grudgingly taking off his old garments and pulling on the new ones. As much as it comforted him to be in a suit again, he hated acquiescing to her demands. But for now, no matter how much it pained him, he would obey her and wait. There was a calm before the storm.

And, as much as he hated to admit it… He wasn't quite sure what to do.

* * *

Have I mentioned that I hate being tied up?

I was restrained against a stiff chair, my ankles bound to its legs and my arms pulled back behind and tied at the wrist while a large coil of rope encircled my chest and effectively bound my arms not only behind me but against the sides of the chair as well. And to top the entire freaking ordeal off, they had stuffed a gag in my mouth after I had spat at one of the guards and hit his eye. I could escape the gag in my mouth at the very least, but for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to care after what had happened when Artemis left.

I had known that this was going to be my only chance to try and escape and find Artemis (as much as I hated the boy, I couldn't have left him behind) or at the very least do some damage, so I was ready when they came down the stairs. The grabbing roughly by the shoulders I was familiar with as well as the manhandling of my legs so that they wouldn't lash out, but what I wasn't expecting was a sharp sensation almost stabbing into the side of my neck.

"Damn!" I had jumped and instinctively sworn, wanting to put my hand up and rub the site that was still stinging. It wasn't a needle that they had injected me with. I _knew_ that feeling well enough. One of the guards had been quickly putting away something that looked similar enough to a hypodermic needle, just… minus the needle. However, at that point my body had decided that it had bigger fish to fry and started getting sluggish. If I passed out again I was going to kill someone.

However, I realized that I wasn't that lucky. They untied my arms, and I tried to fight or move, but only succeeded in flopping my arm around a bit until they secured it. I could barely move, barely think… I was helpless when they inserted a needle into the crook of my elbow and began drawing blood. Fear and memories washed over me, the smell of antiseptic and the click of lab tools coming back to me even though there were no such stimuli present. They collected it in a large vial that made me dizzy to even look at because I knew from experience that wouldn't take only what they needed. They would take whatever they could.

It took nearly ten minutes to fill the vial, and by then I was wound as tightly as I could be under the influence of the drug. Finally, they pulled the needle out of my arm and patched it with a cotton ball and tightly wound a piece of cloth around the needle site. Despite the pain in my arm, they once again drew my hands back behind me, securing them at the wrists this time instead of the forearms, and secured me to the chair in the position that I was in now. And then they left, simple as that. The drug had begun to wear off, and I could feel my mental faculties returning to me and I finally I was able to think rationally about the situation. They had drawn my blood. My blood contained my cells. My cells contained my DNA. My DNA was special. It didn't take a genius to figure it out.

And lo and behold, a genius I was given.

Artemis stumbled down the stairs, the two guards behind him having obviously pushed him. It took me a moment to realize that he was wearing a suit with his hair neatly combed as opposed to the dark jeans and crisp button-up shirt that he had been wearing when we first met. The suit, well… suited him better, no pun intended. This seemed to fit his personality just a bit better. His hands were still bound behind his back, despite his obvious grooming.

I couldn't quite fathom what would have happened or why he was wearing a suit for any reason whatsoever, but I was surprised when one of the guards, mercenaries, whatever they were called slashed the ropes binding me to the chair and manhandled me back onto the ground. I kicked out, my right foot connecting with his chest with a satisfying smack, but he didn't flinch or retaliate, merely held my legs to the ground and wrapped another coil of rope around them like before. Roughly, Artemis and I were secured together again and the other guard checked the rope before nodding at his companion and proceeding towards the door.

Once they had left, I nudged Artemis in the ribs, noticing his body tense up at the unexpected contact. "What happened? And why in the world are you wearing a suit?"

He sighed, although it was more resigned rather than irritated as it had been previously. "My suspicions were correct. I am –We are – Once again pitted against Opal Koboi."

My eyebrows shot up. "That crazy pixie girl you were talking about earlier?"

He nodded, and I could feel his shoulders sink. "We've been searching for the Opal of the past for almost a year now, but now she's finally revealed herself. It's a gamble, certainly, but worth it is she can execute her plan perfectly."

I felt a headache coming on. "Explain this to me again. How are we dealing with a different Opal? Time travel isn't possible."

He sighed once again, the irritation coming back. "Time travel is entirely possible with magic on your side. Approximately one year ago, my mother became ill with a supposedly eradicated fairy disease. The cure was no longer available so Captain Short and I traveled back into the past in order to find the lemur we needed to synthesize it. During our mission, we encountered the Opal Koboi of that time, and so when we traveled back to the present, she followed us through the vortex and emerged three days prior to our departure, possessing my mother, giving her the symptoms of the disease, and therefore causing us to journey to the past in the first place. Soon after, she escaped and had not been heard from since."

I bit my lip, trying to digest everything I had just heard. "Until now."

His shoulders sagged. "Until now."

"How you run into her in the past?" I asked. "Isn't that just a little too coincidental?"

"Extremely, yes," He agreed, taking me by surprise. "She was utilizing the brain fluid of animals in order to utilize them to maximize her power. She desired the lemur I had traveled back to retrieve just as much as I did."

Something dropped into the pit of my stomach. "Would this…brain fluid thing work with blood?"

He paused for a moment. "Theoretically, although the effect would be less potent. It could be used to identify the possibility of the enhancement that would come with the brain fluid and determine whether it is worth extracting the organism's brain fluid."

My breath hitched in my throat as I finally figured out the reason I was caught up in this personal vendetta between two genii. "We might be in trouble, because I just had my blood drawn."

* * *

Opal Koboi was floating on clouds.

Not actual clouds, of course. But she had regained enough of her magic to levitate in the air while meditating and that was close enough. She knew that she was by no means out of the woods yet, but she was well on her way to victory, or at the very least, revenge. She found it unbelievable that her older self had never tried to split up the Captain and Artemis. Captain Short, while being an excellent tactician and officer, lacked the quick thinking and ingenuity that Artemis was so generously gifted with. Conversely, Artemis had the potential to come up with plans on his own but lacked the tact and skill without his Captain in order to execute them. Together, they were unstoppable (she would grudgingly admit that), but separated they were practically incapable of functioning at their normal caliber.

She had gotten lucky, and she would readily accept that. Her plan was brilliant, yes, but she had taken a gamble by throwing in quite a bit of dramatic flair into her operation. When she had first heard of the avian hybrids from herself imprisoned in the Deeps, her mind had started to whir. She hadn't had the time to fully rebuild her operation in this time, nor the personnel or resources. Believe it or not, in the five years she had leapt ahead in time, the LEP had made considerable advancements, likely due to the indirect involvement of Artemis Fowl. Upon discovering fairy technology, the boy had immediately begun working with it and developing his own new products. Not to be outmatched, the centaur had begun rapidly developing his own products in order to stay a safe seven steps in front of the mud boy. The LEP's technology was advancing quite quickly, and Opal was not exactly thrilled about it.

She had been forced to stay underground (not literally, that would've sealed both of them in captivity) and do practically nothing. It was the main reason she had employed humans, annoying and irritating as they may have been. Through transactions and command, she appeared to the LEP as only a beginning human criminal, a mobster perhaps. She had learned to be unpredictable. A flair for the dramatic refused to go away, but she had drastically changed her operations style. This situation, for instance. She hadn't kidnapped before, it wasn't really her style, but she found that the brutish human methods had proved thus far to be especially effective. Normally, if she had even wanted to keep anyone captive, it would've been in fairy handcuffs in the same room she was in so she could endlessly taunt them. However Artemis, as he had previously proven, was able to escape even the best fairy handcuffs even with mental faculties not fully intact. A good strong rope however tended to be a bit more difficult for the mud boy to wriggle out of, not that she had gone anywhere near tying it herself. That would ruin her manicure.

Until now, the point where she had to make herself painfully obvious, she had succeeded in eluding the LEP and leading them around in circles, all because she had become just a bit more pragmatic. Living and working with humans had helped her to lose some of that childish naïveté that had still been somewhere inside of her, that feeling of security and superiority that had left her prone to mistakes in the past. She couldn't help but be pleased with how smart her older self was getting, trying to lead her on a suicide mission that would allow her to escape the Deeps. Opal had to admit, she had almost fallen for it, but had realized exactly what she would have done in the situation, or rather what she was trying to do. The way young Opal had worked it out, she would have been killed and everything she (her other self) had worked on since the timeline split had massively exploded and her elder self would have become a nuclear, magically charged being. Opal had turned it down with a curt, "Thanks, but no thanks", and had cut off all ties with her other self.

It was funny, really, how quickly she had taken control of this timeline and left herself in the dust. And, if she must say, she was doing a much better job than her other self had ever done in the past regarding Artemis Fowl at this point at least. By now, the genius usually would have attempted some form of daring escape. But he was eerily calm and collected, just to annoy her she supposed. Then again, she had set up this entire place just to annoy him, so she supposed it was fair play. She knew that he had at the very least mentally groaned at just how cliché the entire situation was.

Not to say that it wasn't brilliant, of course. This plan had been in the works for months now. After hearing about the avian hybrids, she knew that she had to test one for brain fluid. The hybrid species were tricky. The cama had given her an intense migraine for several days, but the wholphin (an extremely rare cross between a false killer whale and a dolphin) had given her a short several hours of intense stamina and increased perception. While human fluid was good for little but moisturization, combined with the avian DNA it could prove to be something remarkable, or so she hoped. The fact that the hybrid organism itself was viable and was assumed to be fertile was a miracle in and of itself. Hopefully it would prove the same for her.

She knew that eventually Artemis would butt in just as he always did, so she had controlled for that in her plan as well. And, due to that insufferable dramatic flair of hers, she couldn't resist putting on a show. She had intentionally taken the dog to the pound (and given him a memory drug as well, seeing as he was remarkably sentient) and may have suggested the idea to Angeline Fowl one day when both Artemis's were away on business. When Artemis had returned, Angeline had presented him with a dog and a new ultimatum. The avian children had thankfully been smart enough to work it out, and from there she sent her standby team the signal and her plan had finally been set in motion. And was being perfectly executed, might she add.

Her communicator chirped, and she sighed and allowed herself to float down and land lightly on the plush carpet. Seeing the message on screen, she smiled. Still, everything was going to plan. The girl's blood had been drawn, and there was a sufficient amount to conduct tests on. She and Artemis were secured in the downstairs basement still, and hadn't made any movements or intentions known that indicated they were trying to escape. Running a brush through her long dark hair, she regarded herself experimentally in the mirror, cocking one eyebrow in what she hoped was a thoroughly condescending and amused expression. She looked forward to using it.

Striding out the door with a determined gait, Opal couldn't help but smile. She couldn't wait for the fun to really begin.

* * *

**AN: Sorry for the long wait, I had several AP exams and finals and such that were really eating my time. I feel like this chapter shifts in and out of character, especially with Max. Maybe its her ****stubbornness that makes her so dang hard more me to write. Just several quick things:**

**A wholpin and a cama are both actually real things. I promise I didn't just make it up. I'd like to see what a wholpin looks like.**

**If you haven't seen Star Trek: Into Darkness, I would highly recommend it. I went to see it for Benedict Cumberbatch, but accidentally fell in love with every one else in the movie, the characters, the fandom, and the score, which I would recommend listening to as well. Some of the stuff that Giacchino does with the music in relation to what's happening in the film almost make me cry whenever I listen to a specific track. But anyways, it's really good.  
**

**Also, don't forget to vote on pairings on my profile page! I'm still not sure where I want to go with that (or if I even want to go anywhere), so I really need some input if you have an opinion. I'm willing to explore new things with this story, so go vote! :)**

**I think that's all. I hope you liked the chapter, it was hard for me to write!**

**~Haaschiibrownii**


End file.
